(upbeat music) - [Narrator] At BECU, we know that it's people who make all the difference.

Because we're not-for-profit, our most important stakeholders aren't power brokers.

They're everyday people, people like you.

It's our members who make money meaningful.

So we focus on helping them thrive.

It's the art student bringing beauty to his community that makes a college loan matter.

It's the mother building her family's foundation that makes a mortgage matter.

It's people that make BECU matter, people like you.

(light music) - [Announcer] And now, the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival featuring journalists, newsmakers and innovators from around the country in conversation about the issues making headlines.

Thank you for joining us for What A Day with Al Franken, moderated by Jane Coaston.

Before we begin, a special thank you to our session sponsor, Alaska Airlines.

We'd also like to thank our stage sponsor, BECU, and our founding sponsor, the Killinger Foundation.

Also, thank you to our host sponsor, Amazon.

(audience claps) - Welcome to the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival.

I'm Jane Coaston, host of Crooked Media's Daily News podcast, What A Day.

- [Audience Member] Woo!

(cheering) (clapping) - And I could not be more excited to introduce my guest.

You know him from Saturday Night Live and the United States Senate, Al Franken!

(cheering) (clapping) So Senator, or should I call you Al?

Fellow podcaster?

- Call me what my grandchildren call me, Senator.

(laughing) No, you can call, call me Al, yeah.

- Al, can you talk about your journey to the Senate?

How did you get from writing for SNL to sitting in the United States Senate, an even more deplorable place?

(audience laughs) - Well, it's kind of a long story.

I grew up in Minnesota, so that helps.

My dad was a fan of comedy and he loved Buddy Hackett.

(laughs) Some older people here.

(laughing) Big comedy fan and a big fan of politics as a spectator of sport.

And he was a Republican until 1964.

And what happened there was Barry Goldwater was their nominee, and he had voted against the civil rights bill, the '64 civil rights bill.

And we used to watch the news while we ate dinner.

My mom made a great dinner, but we had trade tables and watched Cronkite.

And remember in 1963, there was a demonstration down south and the, and the cops were putting batons on people's heads and sicking dogs on them and fire hoses.

And my dad pointed to the TV and said, "No Jew can be for that.

No Jew can be for that."

And so when they nominated Barry Goldwater, who was against the Civil Rights Bill, my dad changed and became a Democrat.

And that's when I was old enough to figure out that I was a Democrat too.

(clapping) - So, how did you, how did your path get from-- - [Al] Oh yeah.

- writing for, yeah, you were writing for SNL.

- Answer your question, is that?

(audience laughs) Is that what you want me to do?

- It's a thing that would be cool.

- Okay, okay, let me try to do that.

So I like comedy too.

Okay?

And I started performing in high school with a partner, Tom Davis.

I don't know if people here remember Franken and Davis.

(clapping) Yeah.

So we, we were two of the original SNL writers in, in 1975.

And we did the first five seasons, then we left when Lauren left, and we were Lauren again writers.

We came back five years later and did 10 years with the show.

And so, after that, I started writing some books.

I wrote one called Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, and Other Observations.

(laughing) (cheering) (clapping) - Nonfiction, yeah.

(audience laughs) - I see the age expanding as, as I get closer to the present.

So, and then I did another book after that called Lies and Lying Liar Who Tell Them: a Fair And Balanced Look at the Right.

What, no pause for that?

(laughs) (clapping) And I also did a radio show on Air America, which I, we had a station here in Seattle and I had one in New York.

But then we moved the show to Minneapolis.

And in, during the 2006 cycle, I campaigned all around Minnesota for Democrats.

And I should back up a little bit.

Paul Wellstone was kind of my hero.

(audience cheers) (clapping) And in 2002, he died in a plane crash just about two weeks before the 2002 election.

And Norm Coleman was running against him, and Norm ended up winning that election.

And a few weeks after he arrived in Washington, he said to a Capitol Hill newspaper, "To be frank, I'm a 99% improvement over Paul Wellstone."

And when I heard that, I said, I wonder who's gonna beat this guy.

And I thought it could maybe be me.

So during the 2006 cycle, when I was in doing my radio show around the state, I campaigned for Democrats there.

And people were saying, you know, maybe you should run against Coleman.

And I did that, and I clobbered him by 312 votes.

(laughing) (clapping) So that's the answer to your question.

- What do you think your experience in comedy added to your understanding of politics?

- Well, obviously, speaking in front of an audience, which is what you do very often in comedy and writing, what you're, what you're saying is very good preparation for politics.

When you're performing for an audience, you get feedback.

And there's nothing really can substitute for that.

It's different than running for office.

But it's, it's an amazing, I love doing the show.

I love doing Saturday Night Live.

I'll tell you about one sketch that Tom and I wrote.

Does people here remember Julia Child bleeding to death?

(audience laughs) Remember that?

- I do not.

Perhaps you could.

Let's, I was born in 1987, so let's just, you know?

- Oh, okay.

(audience laughing) Okay.

So, Tom and I wrote this skit.

We were watching the the Today Show in the morning, and Julia Child was on and she cut her finger, and that gave us an idea.

(laughing) And so, the sketch was basically Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child de-boning a chicken and cutting her finger very badly and bleeding to death.

It was comedy.

- Right, yeah, mm-hm.

Doing the voice and everything.

- Huh?

- The voice of Julia Child.

- Oh, he was brilliant.

Danny was just brilliant doing it.

And Tom was under the counter pumping the blood.

(laughing) He had an insect sprayer, and we actually held it a week.

We did, we didn't dress rehearsal one week and we didn't have the blood exactly right.

But we knew we had something and on air, it just, it was just magical.

(audience laughs) And no, it was absolutely fabulous.

And Julia Child insisted when they put her exhibit in the Smithsonian, she insisted that that sketch be on a TV in the set (audience claps) running on a loop.

- [Jane] You told-- - I didn't answer your question, I'm sure.

- You know, you got around sort of basically to it.

Let's talk about Donald Trump.

What has surprised you the most about Trump 2.0, empire strikes back?

- Boy oh boy, there's so much.

I guess one, you know, there's no Jim Mattis's in this, this iteration.

He was the Secretary of Defense, and this time, we have Pete Hegseth.

So that, that was kind of shocking to me.

Let's see, what else?

How corrupt it is, this, this meme coin?

- Mm-hm.

- What's that?

I mean, that is, is corruption just writ large and there's absolutely no shame.

And the sons are, I guess Donald Jr is starting this executive branch.

Is that the thing it's called?

It's like a-- - [Jane] Executive some, yeah, it's like a private club, yeah.

- Executive branch, - it's a club that you can join for just $500,000.

So the corruption is surprising me.

- I also just can't imagine giving $500,000 to Donald Trump Jr.

It would be safer giving it to a cat.

(audience laughs) - Well, I assume that you get credit for it from all the Trumps, and it's a bribe, isn't it?

- I hope that Eric Trump isn't like, what about me?

- Well, he hadn't thought of it, so, you know, (laughing) shame on you, Eric.

And no, I mean, they're giving pardons out for people who give a million dollars.

I mean, it's unbelievable.

Let's see, what else has shocked me?

The executive orders.

The first or not the first executive order, but on the first day we had the executive order which pardoned everyone who, you know, engaged in the January 6th riots.

And you know, four Capitol police, I believe it was four, died because of that.

And it just, I find it nauseating that that was the case.

I, DOGE was very odd.

The, what he did with USAID is an amazing sin.

That was, you know, USAID aids the poorest countries in the world.

And this is like the richest guy in the world essentially killing a million people.

And so, it was sickening.

Is this enough?

(laughing) - [Jane] I mean, we could keep going along this.

- Yeah, we could.

- We could, we'd just be here all night.

But I'm curious how you think Democrats should and shouldn't respond to this.

- Well, we should express our outrage.

We should go out and campaign.

I like the fact that Bernie is doing what he is doing, and AOC does what she's doing with him.

(clapping) I like that, this is not directly at him, but I like that Democratic members of Congress are going to Republican districts and having town hall meetings.

I think that's very productive.

And I think we should be fighting them every inch of the way.

Certainly on this, this latest legislation that the big beautiful bill that is this enormous tax break for those at the very top.

And it's gonna cost people at the bottom and lose people their healthcare.

Like I think it's, what is it?

Eight million people are gonna lose their Medicaid and five million lose their benefits through the ACA and it's gonna be a huge tax break for people at the very top, and it's gonna leave a deficit of anywhere from, I guess three to $4 trillion.

And so we should be campaigning against that.

And that's-- (clapping) - So something Democrats are kind of obsessed with the idea of messaging, how to message to people.

- Sure.

- I know you - must have attended some messaging meetings.

What do you think they're getting wrong?

- We used to have messaging meetings every year.

We'd have this, there'd be a senate retreat, the Democratic Senator retreat that Chuck Schumer would organize.

And we always had these experts on messaging.

And one year, we had these two brothers who had written a book called Made the Stick, Made to Stick.

And so I, the first night they were going to speak after dinner, and I went up to them and I said, "I'm really looking forward to you talking about your book, Make It Stick."

And they said, "No, it's Made to Stick."

I went, "Oh, Made to Stick, yeah, Made to Stick," okay.

(laughing) So they, they talked about their book at the thing.

I said "That was really great.

I'm really looking forward to reading Make It Stick."

(laughing) And they said, "No, no, no, it's Made to Stick, Made to Stick."

I go, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, I'm so sorry.

Made to Stick."

So the next morning, they were gonna speak at a round table discussion.

They were gonna be participants in a round table with some other speakers.

And I, I was at the scrambled egg table and one of the brothers was there.

And I said, "I can't wait to hear, (laughing) hear you talk about Make It Stick."

And he goes, "No, it's Made, Made To Stick."

I went, "Oh, that's right, that's right.

Made To Stick."

So, they did the round table discussion.

I said, "That was great.

It really makes me want to get Make It Stick."

And they went, "Made, (laughing) Made To Stick, Made To Stick."

And I went, "Oh, oh, yes, yes, Made To Stick."

So later that day, I was in the elevator and I get off and the two brothers are there waiting to get on and I let 'em on and I say, "I tried to buy your book, (laughing) but I couldn't get it."

And they said, "No, it's on Amazon."

I said, "No, I looked on Amazon for Make It Stick and it wasn't there."

I must have done this to them like 10 times that weekend.

- Well, I've never heard of this book, so it clear, whatever you did.

- I've heard, I've, I've told this story before and someone said, "No, Made To Stick was really good."

(laughing) - So what do you think?

- So I'm, I feel terrible I did this to these two guys, but.

- But what do you think Democrats, I mean, there's all this discussion about messaging.

They bring in people, they bring in experts, they bring in pundits to be like, here's how you talk to voters.

How should Democrats be talking to voters?

- Well, I mean, there's nothing magic.

Some people are really good at it.

We've had two brilliant genius candidates in the last 30 years, Clinton and Obama.

And they were very good at it.

(clapping) But I just think that, that the way to talk about it is be genuine and people respect that.

They respect that you're giving them a, the argument, it isn't magical.

And so we need to be pressing it and doing it and continuing messaging our message.

- There's a lot of talk about old guard Democrats versus the New Guard and there's a lot of value in that conversation because a lot of the party elders are elders.

But ironically, it seems like one of the best people getting his message out is your former colleague, 83-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders.

- [Al] Yeah, he is great at it.

- So, who do you think is the best person, the best people to be leading the charge for the Democratic party right now?

- Well, he's great.

AOC is terrific, of course.

There are a lot of new people who were elected.

Elissa Slotkin from Michigan gave the response on the State of the Union address, and I thought she did a terrific job.

There's a lot of, you know, Maxwell Frost is that?

- Yeah.

- Who's I guess the youngest member of, of Congress.

There's just a lot of people who are very good and we should give them a shot at, at doing that.

Ro Khanna.

(clapping) - I think, I mean, it's funny.

- [Al] Jon Ossoff.

- Yeah, I think that it, it's funny to ask this question while we're dealing with a president who lies all the time and then lies more about the lies that he's lying about.

But trust between Americans and the Democratic Party has been eroding for a while.

But it feels like with everything that happened with former President Biden, it seemed like that kind of threw a stick of dynamite into it.

How do you think Democrats can begin to restore faith with voters who, not, not you guys, you, probably not you guys, but there are lots of swing voters, the people who did go from Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump.

How do Democrats start thinking about how to win back their faith and their votes?

- Well, I think what Biden did was a shame, and he should have stuck with what he said when he ran in 2020, which was that he'd be a transition.

(clapping) Now we say it.

(laughing) But I mean, he obviously did a disservice to himself and his legacy because he had been a good president in many ways.

But I can't believe he didn't drop out right after that debate.

But he should have done it, you know, two years before.

And he should have, after the midterm, said that I'm not running and we would've had a process that we would've picked someone who I think would've had a much better chance.

I mean, Harris ran a race in what, 100 days?

How long was it?

It was-- How long?

- 107 days.

- 107 days, thanks.

(laughing) And completely un, you know, unfair to her, in retrospect, I was hoping she'd win.

Of course, I thought she did, her debate was terrific.

But you know, in 107 days, you really can't do what, you know, what we needed to have done.

And it's a crying shame.

- Right 'cause, you know, the 2022 midterms actually went way better for Democrats than I think a lot of people expected.

So, you could see there's a version of history where that goes differently.

- That was a perfect time for Biden to say.

That's not saying, but it's a.

- [Jane] Yeah.

(laughing) Some would-be Democrats are running as independents or with no party affiliation in redder areas.

In Omaha, a wink, wink, nudge, nudge Democratic candidate just won the mayoral race, becoming the first black mayor in Omaha history, (cheering) first non Republican to run Nebraska's capital in over, in over a decade.

And again, you know, Senator Sanders is an independent.

He's been encouraging people not to run as Democrat since the D word is leaving a bad taste in some people's mouths.

Is this a smart plan?

What do you, what do you think about, can this help?

Can this hurt?

What does it mean?

- I don't think it's a smart play to, for every Democrat to call themselves an independent.

I think there are two major parties in the country, the Republican and Democratic party, and I mean, Bernie ran as a Democrat when he ran for the nomination both times.

So no, I don't, you know, we should run as Democrats and Democrats stand for something.

- Which actually brings me, you've been very busy recently.

You've been, you've got a Netflix show, The Residents.

(clapping) (cheering) - It was stunt casting.

I play a Senator.

(laughing) - But more importantly, not that Netflix isn't important, you run the Midwest Values Pack that helps campaign up and down the ballot.

Can you explain a little bit more about what your, the Midwest Values Pack has found successful in 2024 and what your strategy is for 2026?

- Well, we were a little bit more successful in 22 than we were in 24, but we did help a lot of Democrats who won, some of whom I've mentioned, Slotkin and others.

And we, basically, what my pack does is we raise money and we give it to people.

We also, we give it to candidates, we give it to organizations that we partner with.

And there's a part, an organization called Tech for Campaigns, which is very grassroots and it basically teaches state legislators to do their tech.

And it is very successful and helps them also identify low propensity voters and find them and sign them up to register.

And then, if they're Democrats, get them out to the polls.

And that's one of the things we do.

We, I also try to raise money for, to go after, to target young, young, mainly young men.

And that kind of, that was a little late, too little too late.

And that's what you have when you have 107 day campaign.

And we, I'm proud that we got, we helped one of my former aides, Josh Riley, who is my judiciary council, win a seat in, in the New York 19th.

He flipped a Repub, MAGA Republican seat and we helped a number of people do things like that.

- So, you mentioned something about targeting young men.

That's been an issue that Democrats have become recently very obsessed with.

- [Al] Yep.

- That's all, everybody wants liberal Joe Rogan, leftist, Joe Rogan, I don't know Maoist, Joe Rogan.

They'll, they'll find him.

But what do you, what does that work look like from your perspective?

What should it look like and what will it look like from your, from your group?

- You mean the liberal, Joe Rogan?

- [Jane] Or the targeting, talking to young men.

(Al sighs) - Thanks a lot.

I, I don't know.

I mean, obviously, young men who are gonna lose their Medicaid because of this latest bill might be interested and we should be talking to them about that.

It's really going to be talking about the same issues that we'll be talking to everybody about.

- Is there something that you've been thinking about in, you know, looking ahead to 2026 and even to 2028 that you've learned that you want Democrats and, you know, left leaning progressive voters to be thinking about that we can take forward as we deal with all of this?

- To stay active, I mean, to stay, to stay in it.

I mean, don't, you know, it's easy to throw up your hands and say, I've had it.

And also it's sickening to watch this, what Trump is doing.

And it's, it's every day.

He doesn't stop and I think that's part of his, his plan.

That's part of what he's doing.

And we have to continue to fight and not give up.

And not give up and fight every day.

(clapping) - Agreed.

(clapping) Well, Al, Senator, sir, this has been fantastic.

Thank you so much.

And thank you all for joining me in the audience and those of you who are at home, you can listen to this episode and other episodes of What A Day at cricket.com/whatAday or on your favorite podcast app.

You, you know, it's just in the app.

It's fine.

Just look for it, it's fine.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

(cheering) (clapping) (cheering) (light upbeat music)