Brendan O'Malley 
The guy who pulled the HealthCare.Gov baby out of a burning building and then headed up Medicare and Medicaid in the Obama Administration discusses healthcare with Al. How Obamacare got so popular. (Republicans won, and their plan to repeal and replace sucked tail-pipe.)
Happy Father’s Day, Dads! Of course, I like to think every day is Father’s Day! That’s because, even though over 70% of women with children under 18 work outside the home, they still do most of the work inside the home, including parenting. We dads mainly get the better of the deal. Playing golf with our buddies. Watching twelve hours of football every weekend. And we get to be heroes if we do the slightest little thing like coach Little League. That was not my dad, Joe Franken. To my dad, my brother, Owen, and I were the most important part of … Read More…
ANNCR. V.O.: Earlier today former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders testified before the House Special Committee on Impeachment. Ms. Sanders was questioned by Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York about various statements she has made to the media that she later acknowledged were not true.
An in-depth, but somewhat snarky, look at the Trump administration’s success in packing the courts with right-wing, Federalist Society judges. Gertner, a Harvard Law professor, and Toobin, CNN chief legal analyst, discuss some of the most cynical, activist decisions by the Roberts Court. Al calls Justice Scalia’s dissent in marriage equality, “Very gay.”
This past weekend, I gave a speech to benefit Jewish Family Services of St. Paul. I told the crowd that I was very happy to support Jewish Family Services of St. Paul, because, frankly, the people over at Jewish Family Services of Minneapolis are a bunch of schmucks. They have this attitude: “Oh, we’re Minneapolis Jews,” they’ll say. “We’re responsible for Tom Friedman and the Coen Brothers, and Al Franken.” And I say, “No, that’s St. Louis Park.” And they say, “St. Louis Park is the Jewish suburb of Minneapolis, you schmegege.” And I say, “I’m one of the three … Read More…
Michael Lewis and I discuss his latest bestseller, The Fifth Risk, which I call the best book about the Trump Administration, in no small part because there’s very little focus on Trump himself. Instead Lewis takes us inside of three Cabinet agencies – Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy – and the incompetent, venal, and/or corrupt appointees who find their way into crucial positions within the federal government. The head of science at the Agriculture Department is replaced by a right-wing talk radio host whose only qualification is that he endorsed Trump early in Iowa. Trump appoints the CEO of AccuWeather to head up … Read More…
The brilliant, brave, and hilarious Sarah Silverman is this week’s guest on The Al Franken Podcast. I’ve watched Sarah evolve from a brash, spirited diamond-in-the-rough into one of our most daring, thoughtful, and beloved comedian/satirists. In our, may I say, delightful, wide-ranging discussion, Sarah talks about her formative influences (her dad taught her to curse at two), the risk of taking risks (spoiler alert – it’s risky), and her embrace of change both in her craft and her life. We talk about the presence of evil (hear a right-wing preacher call Sarah “a whore of Zion” and suggest that her violent murder … Read More…
Memorial Day is a solemn day. A day that marks young lives cut short. Ronald Reagan spoke of the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for our country. “Most of them were boys when they died,” Reagan said, “and they gave up two lives – the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men.They gave up everything for our country, for us. All we can do is remember.” Since Reagan spoke … Read More…
Monday, May 27 at 9 pm ET/PT on AETV, is the premiere of “Chris Farley – Anything For a Laugh.” There is no such thing as THE funniest sketch in the 44-year history of Saturday Night Live. But if I absolutely had to pick one – it would be the Chippendale’s audition. Open on the daytime exterior of a Chippendale’s nightclub. Dissolve inside the club, where Kevin Nealon, a middle-management Chippendales exec, sits at an audition table, flanked by two subordinates, Jan Hooks and Mike Myers. The three quickly lay out the premise. “This is impossible,” Mike agonizes. “Can’t we just hire them both?” “No. … Read More…
I was in Los Angeles recently and my old pal Kevin Nealon suggested I take a hike. I took offense, told Kevin that he should take a hike, and stormed off – ending our thirty-three-year friendship. Fortunately, Dana Carvey called me later and explained Kevin was asking me to be his guest on his popular YouTube show, “Hiking with Kevin.” The two of us took a delightful hike together at Will Rogers Park in the Pacific Palisades. Warning: In the show, I look kind of short, but that’s because Kevin is freakishly tall. Enjoy!
Dahlia Lithwick, brilliant writer for Slate on all things jurisprudential, and Matt Miller, former spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder, have a lively discussion with an impassioned Al who argues that it’s time for the House to go to an impeachment inquiry or get off the pot.
Edited May 22, 2019 at 6:45 EDT From the beginning, a lot of people around Donald Trump have said that he resented the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election because it would undermine the legitimacy of his election. Well, yeah! We’ll never know for sure. But there’s a very strong case to be made that, without Russian interference, Trump loses Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which Trump won by a margin of just over 100,000 votes, and Hillary Clinton is our president. According to the Mueller Report, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort periodically shared internal polling data on the races … Read More…