Politics and Musings Live with former Senator Al Franken

单集文稿 ...

• 00:02

  It's Friday, June 20th.

• 00:03

  I'm Jane Koston, and this is What A Day.

• 00:05

  On today's show, we're doing something different.

• 00:08

  A few weeks ago,

• 00:09

  I had a conversation with former Minnesota Senator and Saturday Night Live stalwart Al Franken.

• 00:14

  Al Franken has had perhaps one of the wilder journeys to politics.

• 00:18

  From 1975 to 1980, and from 1985 to 1995, he was a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live.

• 00:25

  But after getting into liberal politics, including a brief stint at Air America,

• 00:29

  and a few books like Rush Limbaugh as a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, great title.

• 00:34

  He then ran for the Senate in 2008 against Republican Norma Coleman,

• 00:39

  and he won by 312 votes, one of the closest winning margins in Senate history.

• 00:45

  How close?

• 00:46

  Coleman didn't concede the election until June 2009.

• 00:50

  Franken left the Senate in 2018, but as you'll hear,

• 00:54

  he still has a lot of thoughts about politics and comedy.

• 00:57

  including his efforts to help one Republican senator tell better jokes and how he's trying to help the Democratic Party reach out to male voters.

• 01:04

  We spoke at the Cascade PBS Festival in Seattle, Washington.

• 01:08

  Here's our conversation.

• 01:11

  Hello.

• 01:14

  Thank you so much for being here.

• 全部文稿