While these sorts of interviews are unsurprising, they’re still worth documenting. Tuesday’s CBS This Morning featured a gooey interview with Democratic Senator Al Franken (Minn.) to promote his new book, encourage him to run for president, and swoon over “how hard you work” while still being “a complete delight.”
Franken was teased three times throughout the show with failed MSNBC host-turned-CBS fill-in anchor Alex Wagner quipping that “Franken spent years making fun of Republicans” but now “is working with them.”
“Senator Al Franken brings a distinctive style to Capitol Hill and we are lucky to have him in our Toyota green room this very morning. Just ahead, how real-life politics compares to making jokes about politicians,” Wagner stated in the second tease.
When he finally arrived onset, co-host Charlie Rose previewed a supercut video (though not as good as one by our friends at the Washington Free Beacon) of Franken attacking Trump cabinet picks:
Minnesota Senator Al Franken is revealing how he changed from a TV joke writer to a leading Democrat on Capitol Hill. Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008 by a razor thin margin. He’s now serving his second term. Franken’s tough questioning and occasional jokes set him apart during Trump cabinet hearings this year.
Franken was welcomed with a favorable chyron that few (if any) Republicans would fetch on the newscast: “Franken’s Sense; MN Senator’s Journey from SNL to Nation’s Capital.”
The interview started with invitations from Rose and Wagner to knock the Trump administration over the Jared Kushner controversy plus the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Co-host and Obama family friend Gayle King then chimed in with this pathetic Notable Quotable:
You know what I took from this book is how much you really like this job, how hard you work at it. I was very, very touched by that, Senator, how much — what this job really means to you. But there's also times when you struggle because being funny is in your DNA and your staff sometimes has to say, okay, Al, let's keep it here in the room.
The inevitable encouragement to run for president came up with Rose telling him now there’s a saying “that every senator gets up in the morning, goes looking in the mirror and he sees a future president”:
ROSE: When you go and start to shave and look in the mirror, you see a future president?
FRANKEN: No. No.
ROSE: Would you like to be a future president?
FRANKEN: No. I see a future five-term senator.
KING: Five terms?
WAGNER: So, who is the future president? Who do the Democrats have?
FRANKEN: You know, isn't that a fun game to play?
WAGNER: On national television.
Their time together eventually had to end, so Wagner put a button on the softball session by making Franken blush: “You know, as hard as you try not to be funny, you're still a complete delight, Senator Franken.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from May 30's CBS This Morning:
CBS This Morning
May 30, 2017
7:52 a.m. [TEASE]
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Ahead: Sen. Al Franken in Studio 57]
ALEX WAGNER: Al Franken spent years making fun of Republicans. Now he is working with them in the Senate. Ahead, the Minnesota Democrat talks with us about getting things done and why the Senate is different with a Republican in the White House.
(....)
8:16 a.m. [TEASE]
WAGNER: Senator Al Franken brings a distinctive style to Capitol Hill and we are lucky to have him in our Toyota green room this very morning. Just ahead, how real-life politics compares to making jokes about politicians.
(....)
8:30 a.m. [TEASE]
GAYLE KING: In our green room, you saw him a little bit earlier, that's Minnesota Senator Al Franken, who proudly writes in his book he's the first one in his family to own a pasta maker and when he took a personality test in high school, they said you'd be a jazz musician, Senator Franken, but here you are on Capitol Hill.
(....)
8:33 a.m. Eastern
CHARLIE ROSE: Minnesota Senator Al Franken is revealing how he changed from a TV joke writer to a leading Democrat on Capitol Hill. Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008 by a razor thin margin. He’s now serving his second term. Franken’s tough questioning and occasional jokes set him apart during Trump cabinet hearings this year.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Franken’s Sense; MN Senator’s Journey from SNL to Nation’s Capital]
[SUPERCUT OF FRANKEN ATTACKING TRUMP APPOINTEES]
(....)
WAGNER: You think bipartisanship in the Senate ain't dead?
FRANKEN I don't think that the Republicans can do this themselves. I don't think they should be doing it by themselves. I think we can work in a — I think we should be working in a bipartisan way on this very obviously very, very, very important issue to everybody.
KING: You know what I took from this book is how much you really like this job, how hard you work at it. I was very, very touched by that, Senator, how much — what this job really means to you. But there's also times when you struggle because being funny is in your DNA and your staff sometimes has to say, okay, Al, let's keep it here in the room.
(....)
ROSE: Every — it is said that every senator gets up in the morning, goes looking in the mirror and he sees a future president. When you go and start to shave and look in the mirror, you see a future president?
FRANKEN: No. No.
ROSE: Would you like to be a future president?
FRANKEN: No. I see a future five-term senator.
KING: Five terms?
WAGNER: So, who is the future president? Who do the Democrats have?
FRANKEN: You know, isn't that a fun game to play?
WAGNER: On national television.
FRANKEN: And I think many of my colleagues may run, and my goodness, it wouldn't help me very much to single one out, would it?
WAGNER: No favoritism there.
KING: No, because I want to get things done. Because that's why I like the job.
KING: Senator Franken wanted to send a note to a constituent who turned 110 and said, dear Ruth, you have a bright future ahead of you. Your staff said no, no, no.
(....)
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Franken’s Sense; MN Senator on Washington, Comedy and New Memoir]
WAGNER: You know, as hard as you try not to be funny, you're still a complete delight, Senator Franken.
KING: Can’t help it.
