free c-span radio app. announcer: c-span's washington journal is live everyday with policy issues that affect you. coming up this morning, democratic pollster stefan pollsterd republican hol stefan meyer discuss. they will talk about the geopolitical fallout about the troops withdraw from syria. be sure to watch c-span washington journal this morning. join the discussion. former senator al franken sits down for a conversation at the political and convention in nashville. this event marks his first major national appearance since resigning in january of 2018.

[cheers and applause] mr. franken: weren't they great? i told james, who played bernie come up he has to start at a higher level and ramp it up. wow. it is great to be here, isn't it, at politicon? people all over the ideological spectrum, left, right, far-left, far-right, the nutcase left, the nutcase right, and there are even people here from nutcase middle. david brooks is here. [laughter] mr. franken: wrote another great column in the new york times about how there aren't enough americans like him, and it was

very, very balance, i have to say. i know a lot of you might be wondering what i have been up to. well, when i left the senate, i was going to give up my seat, but not my voice. thank you. [applause] mr. franken: i have spent a lot of time thinking about how to do that, and how best to make a difference, so i have been spending the last few months going around the country, making speeches, about politics, health care. i have been raising money for organizations that do great things, like trained service dogs for veterans with ptsd, and i have a new show on sirius xm. that came out of my podcast, the al franken podcast, still going. i know that it sounds pathetic when you say i got a podcast

. because there are actually over 600,000 podcasts in the world today. in fact, at first, i love barbecue. i was going to do my podcast on barbecue, with an emphasis on brisket. and i learned there are now 12 podcasts on brisket, and eight of them are really, really good so instead, i have decided to do my podcast about issues, about the issues that matter to americans and our lives, because this is an important campaign coming up, and important election, the second most important election of our lifetime. the first one being the last one. and, in the last campaign, we did not hear much about issues.

it was called the trump circus -- it was all the trump circus and hillary clinton's emails, so instead i am doing a podcast which focuses on issues that affect everyone's lives, on income inequality, health care, climate, immigration, because we need to focus on actual issues this time. education, what could be more important? if we are going to be climate -- beat climate change, if we are going to improve health care delivery, we need an educated workforce. you know, not too many years ago, the united states was number one in the world in terms of percentage of our population that had graduated from college. now we are number 12.

and sinking. a few years ago, one committee, actually bernie was on that committee, we had a guy from the oecd, and my bernie isn't as good, but i work with bernie a lot, so bernie asked, i suppose this is about the cost of college here, one of the reasons that we are falling -- well, how much does it cost to go to college in say, germany? the guy says, well, in germany you go to college for free. how much does it cost in france? he goes, also in france you pay

nothing to go to college. well, how about sweden? in sweden, they pay you to go to college. [laughter] mr. franken: so, we have to do something about the cost of college. when i was in the senate from my staff would not let me do impressions of my colleagues. is there anyone here from my staff? good. ok, so i met chuck grassley my first day in the senate, and we got on the subway sitting across from each other, and chuck said to me, you look like you look on tv. i said, well, there is a reason for that, but a lot of times

people say i am shorter than i look on tv. he said, guess what they say about me? i said, that you are taller than you look on tv. he said, yeah, how did you know that? i said because you are taller than you look on tv. he said guess what else they say about me. i said you are friendlier than you seem on tv. yeah, how did you know that? well, it wouldn't hurt to smell -- smile when you are on camera everyone small. normally what we are talking about is pretty serious. i said, you can smile at the beginning and when you are serious, just be serious and smile at the end. oh, that is a good idea.

this is, of course, politicon not issuecon, so i want to talk about some current politics. for example, how about that gang that invaded the capital skiff, huh? has anyone ever been to a skiff, a sensitive compartmented information facility. here evera skiff, a sensitive compartmented information facility? cif is. what a s the one in the capital is where members of congress get a briefing, classified briefings, and you can't bring your cameras in there. you know why? well, sometimes the briefers bring, oh, visual things like maps and very sensitive information you would not want our enemies to see or to hear,

and if an idiot charges into the scif with a smart phone and takes a picture or video, then sends it to a friend, and the chances are very good that the friend is also in idiot, and the idiot's friend then posts it on facebook, our enemies could actually figure stuff out. and who knows, maybe one of our intelligence assets could get outed and killed by the russians, which would make it in harder for us to recruit people overseas and keep americans like you safe. isn't that a fun fact?

you know how i know that? because i was in the senate. i went to the scif a lot. and also i paid attention. if you paid attention and thought about it for even a minute, you would know that bringing a camera into the scif and taking pictures or video could jeopardize the lives of who knows how many people. i hope you find this interesting. so you want to hear a scif story? i will tell you a story about being in the scif. it is a funny story. nothing is as exciting as unknowingly starting a chain of events that could lead to say, oh, the detonation of a nuclear device in nashville five minutes from now. [laughter] mr. franken: wouldn't that be dramatic, huh?

and it could all be traced back to jim jordan running into the and making a video with his camera. now, my story isn't anywhere near as exciting. it takes place in july, 2015. the p5 plus one and iran had just come to an agreement on the iran nuclear deal. the republicans were dead set against it, but president obama took the position that it was his right as president to make this deal, so we have the power to do this unilaterally and the republicans hated that. agreed tond corker allow a vote, but the vote had to be a vote of disapproval, so the no's had to be 67 votes, and

republicans were just pissed off about that. we go to the scif to hear from and ask questions of secretary of state kerry, the secretary of energy the secretary of the , treasury, and the guy who is head of iran for the cia, who i will simply call mr. quimby. we are all there. the format of these briefings is they brief and we ask questions, so kerry opens up with a great 15 minute summary of everything. and it is pretty spectacular. and 15 minutes for kerry is about right. he sometimes goes on too long. this is really effective, and now the republicans are more

pissed off, and mcconnell is pissed off. he is running this, he is the majority later at the time. he goes, we have a lot of senators so we will get right to the questions. [laughter] mr. franken: he has some marbles in his mouth, you probably don't know that. he kind of goes, could i just have five minutes? and you may know, before he was energy secretary, he was chairman of the nuclear physics department at m.i.t., and he had negotiated the details of the agreement and gives a five minute summary of what he did that is just brilliant. really pissed, so

mcconnell starts calling on senators. you get called on in the order you arrived. they asked some questions, and these guys handle them, and they go right to the cia guy when they need to, and they are getting madder and madder. because they are doing such a good job. me and i am sitting there and i can feel the tension in the room. i think, it would be good to dissipate this a little bit, maybe i will try a joke. and i don't really have a great joke, but i'm just going to try it. you remember the supreme leader right after this had characterized the agreement differently than the p5 plus one and iran and negotiators had, and that can be an issue. i wanted to give them a chance to answer before it was asked by republicans, so i said, i have a

question about the supreme leader, or as i call him, the supreme being. it deserved that response, but , for some the tension reason, the room explodes with laughter. the tension kind of disappears. for some stupid reason. so we finished, and you can leave whenever you want, and people leave often after they ask questions. as i am leaving, people are patting me on the back, that was a great joke. a senator asked me, can i use that joke in my state? i said, sure, go ahead. he says, why is it funny? i said because supreme leader is just an absurd title to

americans, and the logical extension is that it is like supreme being. oh, ok. i can tell that in my state? i go yeah. all day, i am getting that, this was great. so later, we have a vote, it is 5:00. i enter the chamber. schumer sees me and comes right at me, goes, i told the president your joke. supreme one. [laughter] and i said, no no no. supreme being. he goes, that's right. supreme being. i said but you told him supreme one. yes. and he didn't laugh. no. and you told them it was my joke. yes. [laughter]

mr. franken: so that is my scif story. it is not as exciting as the nuclear explosion that jordan is going to cause. now, the reason they charge in is that they are mad about impeachment. and that all these civil servants who serve our country overseas are talking, are testifying. they are testifying to republicans and democrats, but these guys decide to rush in with their cameras, and they are doing this because a majority of apparent -- majority of americans now favor impeachment. you know who must be pissed? mueller.

mueller spent two and a half years investigating everything that russia did and every connection the trump people had and indicting the campaign manager and getting pleas from the national security advisor and from the deputy campaign chairman and putting cohen into prison. and he writes a 450 page report and no one reads it. except people whose job it is to read it. and no one cares. and trump has been spending the last three years saying i had nothing to do with any foreign interference in our elections.

he spent three years trying to convince people and prove that, and then he calls the new president of ukraine and shakes him down with what the chief of staff calls -- basically says -- not basically, says is a quid pro quo. and trump does this with 12 people on the phone. listening and taking notes. [laughter] wow, what an idiot. so now, he is going to be impeached. the majority of americans want

him -- it is close down to a majority want him out. but a majority want him impeached. he is going to be impeached by the house and he is in shock. trump is tweeting out insane stuff. he always has, but this stuff is, adam schiff should be tried for treason and executed. we are going to have a civil war. and that will never end. it will never be resolved. i have one piece of advice for the joint chiefs of staff, and i hope this gets to them. now is not the time to take the nuclear codes away from trump. now is the time to give him the wrong code.

[laughter and applause] mr. franken: and if he just melts down and calls for the football and punches in the wrong code, the guy with the football should just escort him president's bomb shelter, which we should pre-equipped with freezers full of big macs, and say mr. president, just stay here and then, he comes back a couple days later in a hazmat suit and he says, mr. president, good news. we won the war. china and russia, everyone dead. everyone dead. i'm not saying we didn't take it

on the chin a little, but there are still people alive in muncie , moline, and in spokane. they are living. sir, it would be best if you just stayed here for a number of months. and just let him sit there for another week or two, then come and have him arrested for attempted murder of 7 billion people. that's all i'm saying. [laughter and applause] mr. franken: this is going to happen. i want to tell you a little bit about myself. i was born in 1951. my dad was a printing salesman. my mom had the job of raising me and my brother, who is five

years older than me. owen and i shared a bedroom in a two-bedroom, one bath house in st. louis park, a suburb of minneapolis. i grew up middle-class at the height of the middle-class in the 1950's. growing up in st. louis park, i felt like the luckiest kid in the world, and i was. this is an optimistic time. this is post-world war ii america. when almost everyone was very anti-nazi. if you were a nazi in post-world war ii america, you just kept that to yourself. [laughter] mr. franken: st. louis park was sometimes called saint jewish park because we were about 20% jewish. now that is a lot of jews.

in minnesota, that is a shtetl. actually, any jews is a lot of jews in minnesota. in fact, that used to be our license plate. [laughter] mr. franken: tom friedman grew up in st. louis park. the cohen brothers grew up in st. louis park. a lot of cohen brothers grew up in st. louis park. [laughter] mr. franken: the first momentous event i remember was sputnik. the soviets had launched the first satellite into orbit in 1957. this just freaked america out. the soviets were ahead of us in space and they had nuclear weapons. so my parents marched me and my brother into the living room, sat us down and said, you boys are going to study math and science so we can beat the soviets.

and i thought that was a lot of pressure to put on a six-year-old. [laughter] mr. franken: but, we were obedient sons, so we studied math and science. we were good at it. my brother was first in our family to go to college. he went to m.i.t., majored in physics, and became a photographer. [laughter] mr. franken: that's my brother. i went to harvard and became a comedian. [laughter] mr. franken: but, we beat the soviets, so you are welcome. [laughter and applause] mr. franken: thank you. a couple good things came out of my time in college. first of all, i get to tell people that i went to harvard. almost as good is i met my wife

the first week of school at a mixer in downtown boston, that was 50 years ago september 19, and we have been married now 44 years, many of them happy. [laughter and applause] mr. franken: frannie grew up very differently than me. when she was 18 months old, her father, a decorated world war ii vet, died in a car accident coming back from the paper mill where he worked. frannie was 18 months old, she was not the youngest. there was one younger. bootsie, three months old. my mother-in-law was widowed at age 29 with five kids. age seven years to three months

old. they survived on social security survivor benefits. sometimes, it was not enough for food. sometimes, they didn't have enough for heating oil. this was in portland, maine. sometimes, the phone was off, but they made it. my mother-in-law, when the youngest went to school, my mother-in-law worked at the supermarket in the produce department. went to hightsie school, my mother-in-law got a $300 g.i. loan to go to the university of maine. she got three more loans and graduated. she became in elementary school teacher. [applause] mr. franken: and because she was teaching title i kids, all her loans were forgiven.

all the girls including my wife went to college and graduated. with combinations of pell grants and scholarships. my brother-in-law went into the coast guard, where he became an electrical engineer. every member of frannie's family made it into the middle class. now, they tell you in this country to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. but first you have to have the boots. and the government gave my wife's family the boots and that is why i am a democrat. [applause] mr. franken: that is why i am a democrat. >> [shouting] mr. franken: oh, don't go.

[laughter] ok, it is a serious accusation and i take it seriously. believe me. i think they want to go ahead with the show and it is ok if you leave. so, about three months into my freshman year, i had a crisis. basically, i was on the math -science track and i kind of figured out i wasn't that interested in math and science. frannie suggested i go to the counselor's office and get help. so they had me take a test. what it was was it was the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory.

i know this because a couple years ago i did a google search on the only statement that i remember, and it was i have never had any black and tarry bowel movements. [laughter] mr. franken: all the top google search results said exactly the same thing, which is that of the 504 statements from the minnesota multiphasic, the only statement people who took the test remember decades later is i have never had any black and tarry bowel movements. now i know what you want to know. but i don't remember how i answered it. i do remember my results very distinctly. of the hundreds of careers listed, scientist was last. dead last.

number one was jazz musician. [laughter] mr. franken: i did not play an instrument. number two was camp counselor. comedian was not considered a job or a career by the minnesota multiphasic people, and i looked at these results and said, that is telling me i should be a comedian. because that's what i wanted to be. years later, dana carvey said, no one should be a comedian unless they have to be a comedian. and i just had to be, because i think the thing i love most in my childhood was sitting in our tv room in st. louis park with my family and watching comedy.

especially with my dad. and he loved comedy. now my dad inhaled a pipe for over 50 years. he stopped when he got emphysema. he loved comedy. he especially loved the tonight show and he loved buddy hackett. and when my dad got on a laughing jag, he would end up coughing and he would end up coughing up phlegm. so if johnny would say ladies and gentlemen, mr. buddy hackett, my mom would get up and walk out of the room. but i didn't mind the phlegm at all. i met -- i don't know how many people remember franken and davis but i met tom davis in high school. that is something.

frank and davis started doing stand up this theater. it was like a second city. it was like third city. once i went off to college, tom and i would do a two-man show six nights a week and get paid to do it at this place. between my junior and senior year, at the end of the summer, tom and i hitchhiked from minneapolis to l.a. kids, don't do this. to go do the comedy store. and we killed. we got on people's radar and after i graduated, we drove from boston to l.a., this is me and frannie and tom, and like most stories that start that way,

ours ended in almost immediate and lasting success. lorne hired us as writers. to be the first group of writers on a show, a new show that would air live from new york on saturday night, and that show of course was three's company. [laughter] mr. franken: i ended up doing 15 seasons at snl and after the show, i will be happy if you want to go backstage and find out what drugs everybody did, i would be happy to let you know. but i would like to turn now to the essential task before us, which assuming he is in the white house a year from now, is defeating this sick, cruel,

corrupt psychopath. now that is just my opinion. that is my opinion. [cheers and applause] mr. franken: i am sure he has a terrific family somewhere. [laughter] mr. franken: but the thing about donald trump is that in addition to being a compulsive liar, a serial con man, a white supremacist, and just kind of a jerk, this guy, and i mean it in the least pejorative way possible, does not know what he is doing. now i know stuff can get lost between the locking kids up in cages and the selling out of the kurds. but there is one example from the 2016 campaign that i just can't get out of my head. it may sound a little wonky, but i promise this is worth it.

during the 2016 campaign, trump kept saying that he was going to repeal the affordable care act and replace it with something terrific. and that's great. we all love terrific things. but i was wondering kind of how he was going to do that and during the campaign, trump had one idea. he trotted out only one idea ever in every debate, whatever press conference, one idea. here it was. allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. remember that? that was it. during the entire campaign, whenever he was asked about health care, that was it. allow insurance companies to

sell policies across state lines. the idea was that passing a federal law making it legal for health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines would increase competition and lower costs. the problem was that it was already legal for health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. there was no federal law prohibiting it. it was up to the states. in fact, six states had already passed laws specifically saying that health insurance companies were completely welcome to come to their state and offer health insurance policies. wyoming, georgia, kentucky, maine, rhode island, and washington state. and guess what. zero health insurance companies

had ever taken them up on it. why? well, if you are going to sell health insurance in tennessee, you have to set up something called a provider network. now, what is a provider network? it is a network of health care providers, like doctors, who can treat you. here is something that donald trump doesn't know. most people like to go to doctors in their state. [laughter] mr. franken: ok, so, this one idea was stupid, because it involved legalizing something that was already legal, but also which didn't make any sense to anybody.

in fact, in all of the shitty health plans that republicans offered or passed or put up for votes, no one bothered to include trump's one idea. this idea of his, his own idea, was too stupid for house republicans. he was too stupid for louie gohmert. [laughter] mr. franken: if you don't know who louie gohmert is, just know that he is the perfect choice for that joke. [laughter and applause] mr. franken: of course, when the plan finally failed because of the thumbs down from mccain, trump said this. who knew that health care would be complicated? [laughter] mr. franken: everyone. except you.

[applause] mr. franken: i really hope the nuclear code thing happens. i really do. that would make me so happy. the thing is that health care is complicated. and that makes it easy to demagogue. republicans spent eight years doing just that, and then the dog caught the car. in 2017, republicans suddenly had control of the white house and both houses of congress and it was time to repeal and replace. like a lot of people, i was really curious, what do you got? what did the think tanks come up with over the last eight years? how are you going to do this? if you can ensure more people

are provided just as good care, better care at the same cost or lower cost, bravo. i salute you, republicans. good for you. we were rooting for this. hones. but what they came up with was so horrible. 23 million fewer people would be insured. millions of americans would have to pay more for their insurance and people with pre-existing conditions would not be guaranteed protection. holy mackerel, the american people said, that is really bad. and for the first time, a lot of americans finally started to understand what was in the affordable care act.

not just protection for people with pre-existing conditions, but no annual or lifetime caps. kids on their parents insurance until they are 26 years old. subsidies for people up to 400% of poverty. medicaid expansion. you know what the last three states to pass medicaid expansion by referendum are? idaho, nebraska, and oklahoma. people love medicaid expansion and for reasons i could go on an out about -- i could go on and on about. health benefits, hospitalization and newborn care. on and on and on. this is why democrats picked up 40 house seats in 2018. [applause]

speaking of 2018, one more fun health story. health care story. remember in 2018, there were all these republican house members who said they were outraged that their opponents had accused them of voting against protections for people with pre-existing conditions and they would say, that is a lie. it wasn't a lie. in 2017, all of those republicans voted for a bill that did not guarantee that your family would have protection if you or your spouse or your child had a pre-existing condition, but here is best part. here is why i am telling the story.

in 2018, republicans took what is known as a fig leaf vote. in 2018, republicans took one is known as a fig leaf vote. it is supposed to cover your -- cover your privates, but the fig leaf vote barely covered half of a testicle. here is what it was in you really won't believe this. it said insurance companies had to cover people with pre-existing conditions, but it could charge them whatever they wanted. here is the best part. the insurance companies did not have to cover any care for the pre-existing condition. wow.

how cynical. and that is what they used to say no come we voted to protect people's pre-existing conditions. the affordable care act is the product of an administration and party that had ideas and led. what is happening now is we have a majority party that has no ideas. there only move seems to be like doing something to tear down ideas from the other side. [applause] >> now actual leadership requires having actual ideas. for example, why do all the other developed countries pay between 30% and 40% of what

americans pay for pharmaceutical drugs? well first of all, they do this interesting thing called negotiating. we have a much bigger market than canada or denmark. it is insane for us not to let medicare negotiate with pharmaceutical companies the way that the u.k. does. also, i have a personal pet peeves. we are only one of two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise on tv and to deduct the cost of the advertising as a business expense, so the

taxpayers are paying for these commercials come up for these very expensive drugs when there are less expensive drugs that are every bit as effective, but the doctor does not want to lose a patient who insists because the people in the commercial seems to be enjoying their lives so much. so here is my idea. the last half of the commercial, it quickly runs through the negative side effects while they play some reassuring music while the actors ride bikes in the country or go antiquing or listen to late jazz in a gazebo. instead of picking out the perfect tomato at a farmers market, why not require the actors to act out the side to act out the side effects? [applause]

>> stop taking if it leads to nonstop vomiting. it may cause hair loss, scaly skin and involuntary bowel movements. don't take it if you are allergic to it. how are you supposed to know before you take it? allergic reactions may include non-hodgkin's lymphoma,

hodgkin's lymphoma, lymphoma, other lymphomas, severe depression and suicidal ideation. if you have suicidal ideation , ask a friend to remove a loaded firearm from your if they had to show the mother doing tai chi at the park while daughter had explosive diarrhea, maybe they would stop advertising it and doctors could describe a much cheaper drug that is every bit as effective. >> i have spent a long time on health care and i want to talk about another pressing issue facing the american people which is how much of an asshole ted cruz is. i guess the story is about guns, but mostly it is about ted.

after sandy hook, i cosponsored the assault weapons ban. at one point during the debate, he came up to me on the floor and said to me anyone for the assault weapons ban is engaged in sophistry. that is an sat word. that is a false argument, a deliberately false argument. i said, how? he said, well, the clinton justice department did a study on it and said it did not affect gun violence at all. i said, that is not true. you are talking about the 1996 study which came after two years after the ban was passed and it said gun violence had gone down by 6%, but was not statistically valid enough to draw a conclusion and he said to me, just read the study.

i went ok. i go back to my office, talk to my judiciary counsel and i state said thated cruz anyone for the assault weapons ban is engaged in sophistry. he went to harvard law and he says, what is sophistry? i tell him what it is and i tell him what ted said. he said no, that report said gun violence had decreased, but was not statistically enough to draw a conclusion. i said do me a favor, go to the

report, get the quotes that say that, put it on a sheet of paper and when i see ted, i will show him. i do that and carry it around. i go up to him and i said you said to me that anyone for the assault weapons ban is engaged in sophistry and he says, no i didn't. you didn't expect the story to end that way did you? how big of an asshole. gosh, i wish that guy was here for this. i got about 10 minutes left.

as i said, in the senate, my staff would not let me tell stories about my colleagues. tom coburn from oklahoma did not have a great sense of humor and he was on judiciary when i got there and the first three interactions i had were not good. i went up and said let me buy you lunch, and he said you can buy me breakfast, and i said ok, and we had breakfast. we sat down and i said, let's just have fun. he goes, ok, fine.

i said, you are a doctor. he is an ob/gyn. i said, you are doctor. let me ask you something. to be a doctor in oklahoma, do you have to have any formal education and he said yes, you got to go to medical school. i said, ok, that was a joke, and that is what i used to do in my career. we spent an hour and i explained to him what jokes were and what the proper reaction to jokes were and we had a nice talk. my staff was so nervous.

you write constiuent notes. the first day i got there, i was put on my desk a constituent note and there was a woman in minnesota who is turning 110. i was supposed to write her a note. i wrote dear ruth, you have a bright future. so, my scheduler picks it up and goes what's this? i said what is this? it is a joke. he goes, you think she will find it funny? i don't know. she's 110. hyou think her family will find

it funny? okay. i didn't get to do that. when the supreme court ruled on same gender marriage, i wrote our press release and give it to my staff and my press release was minnesota senator al franken said today i applaud the supreme court for legalizing same gender marriage throughout the nation, but i found justice scalia's dissent very gay. what is the harm?

i don't want to go over my time, and i have three minutes left, so i'm going to thank you and say that there is hope. we have a great country. i know what i will do. i will go tell a story. a reason to feel good about our country. a few years ago, i was sitting in my office and one of my staffers said we have a page, a minnesota page. pages are there for three months. she is

a somali minnesota girl. i said let's meet her. we go down and there are 30 brand spanking new pages and she is wearing a hijab and she is smiling. i go up to her and i say you look like a minnesotan and and she smiles. we interviewed her and i got to know her. she was very, very smart, very poised and if the somalian ambassador would come, i would bring her along to make sure the somali ambassador saw this american girl who was a page in the united states senate.

about a little over a year later, i heard she had been chosen by her class to be the class speaker, so i invited myself to introduce her. i'll tell you about willmers. 20,000 people. minnesota is the number one producer of turkeys in the united states. the county she is from is the largest turkey procui-- county in the country. they have this big jenny o plant and that attracted a number of latinos over the last several decades and now a lot of somalis who came as refugees were going to work at that plant and so i went to the

graduation and sat next to the principal and the superintendent and mona gave me a big hug. they said that 85% of the kids that go to college and i looked at the program and i could tell about 60% were your minnesota german scandinavians, about 20%, 25% were latino and 15% were somali.

i could see, they showed who was high honors and it was a great ceremony. three students spoke. the valedictorian had been born in ecuador and they spoke and muna spoke about being a high school student and the doubts you have and she gave a very universal speech. she got a standing ovation at the end of it and at the end of

this, they pass out the diplomas and made the announcement. she is first and so they said make sure to hold your applause until everyone has been announced. they announced her, and the place went nuts and people were stopping on the bleachers. it just didn't stop. we have a great country. donald trump, two days before the 2016 election, flew to minnesota for the first time

during the campaign and he just started spewing. he talked about hillary's plan to address the worst refugee crisis by admitting 65,000 refugees from syria and so far, minnesota had admitted 28th. he said that her plan will will bring generations of ,errorism into communities referring of course to somalis

in luna. about the week after the election, i spoke to the french ambassador of the united states and i asked him who was considered a frenchman. if you can point back to the village in france that your family family came from and and family came from and because there of that, they never really assimilate their immigrants. they keep them separate. what is unique about america is that we are all immigrants except for native americans that we committed genocide against.

i am a jew, but i am an american jew. she is a somali-american. on election day in 2016, i went to the university of minnesota, she gave me a hug and told me that her sister had been elected homecoming queen. that is who we are. in places like france, they isolate their refugees and immigrants. america in america, we elect them homecoming queen. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright nati

>> here's a look at some of today's c-span schedule. next, live, your calls and comments on "washington journal ." newsmaker is at 10:00. rodney davis about election security and the impeachment inquiry. after that, a look at mark zuckerberg's testimony on capitol hill about his plans to create a cryptocurrency. possible impact. book tv has live coverage of the texas book festival from austin starting today at noon mccareywith dr. marty offering his thoughts on health care. recounts her time as a cia operative. and even room