franken declared winner, and that's no joke. >> yeah, or al franken running for senate, no joke. >> reporterfraid some of my colleagues have been just as guilty. >> no joke. al franken's running for senate. thank you cbs news. >> reporter: you're very welcome. al franken may not know what his future holds, but it's pretty clear he'll never outlive funny. >> former three-term because your carpet never stops working there's resolve carpet care. with five times more benefits than vacuuming alone... it lifts more dirt, pet hair and removes odours. while softening every fibre because your carpet never stops working, resolve carpet care with five times benefits ...studying to be a dentist and she gave me advice. she said... my daughter is... ...dadgo pro with crest pro-health. 4...these crest pro-health.... ...products help maintain a... ...professional clean. go pro with crest pro health crest pro-health... ...really brought my mouth... ...to the next level. clearasil rapid action begins working fast for clearly visible results in as little as 12 hours. but can ot fix this teens skateboarding mis

could 2020 be the al franken decade? a senator and supporting a great president. that would be fun. >> reporter: if he ever does run for president, there's one headline you're sure to see. it's right there over and over and over, on a poster in his capitol hill office. franken declared winner, and that's no joke. >> yeah, or al franken running for senate, no joke. >> reporter: and i'm afraid some of my colleagues have been just as guilty. >> no joke. al franken's running for senate. thank you cbs news. >> reporter: you're very welcome. al franken may not know what his future holds, but it's pretty clear he'll never outlive funny. >> former three-term minnesota senator dead at 103. no joke. because your carpet there's resolve carpet care. with five times more benefits than vacuuming alone... it lifts more dirt, pet hair and removes odours. while softening every fibre because your carpet never stops working, resolve carpet care with five times benefits clearasil rapid action begins working fast for clearly visible results

. ♪ ♪ >>> please welcome senator al franken to this program.tering politics he was an award writing comedy writer. you can now read about his unlikely journey into politics in his new memoir, al franken giant of the senate. i love that. he joins us live from new york. good to have you on the program. >> great to be here. thanks for loving that. >> let me start with this. you were an entertainer before you got into politics. it's not lost on me that donald trump was an entertainer of sorts before he got into politics. you have made the transition to being taken seriously. can donald trump do that? >> i don't know. you know, we took different approaches. i thought that i had to sort of prove something because i had not served in public office before and i made it a point to read as much as i could and learn about policy and he seems to have taken the opposite approach saying things like no one knew that health care was complicat complicated until i just realized it. so it's a completely different approach. won. he's president. i mean, so i guess

senator grassley: senator franken. senator franken: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to the ranking member for this important hearing. mr. treene, thank you for joining us today. especially on such short notice. you began your written testimony by underscoring efforts the trump administration has made to address hate crimes and your oral testimony. in addition to justice department investigations in the hate crimes and other potentially bias motivated incidents you pointed out president trump condemned hate during his first address to congress and last week he, quote, reasserted his resolve to, unquote, to confront hate crimes in an event here in the capitol. now, these are all important steps and the president should commended for clearly and unequivocally condemning hate. far too often, whether threw missteps or associations with controversial figures, the white house fails to speak clearly in opposition to bias and hate. far too often the white house sends mixed messages. mr. treene, as we attempt to understand the factors contributing to the rise in hate

franken and lee will appear on after words in the coming weeks. tom coborn officers his thoughts on government spending. graham explores the relationship between china and the united states through the trap in destined for war. and historian sean mcmeekan takes a closer look at the end of the rule over russia in the russian revolution. >> good evening, everybody. welcome to this author event. it is so nice to have you here. i am anderson and a member of the board of trustees.

al franken recalls this campaign in giants of the senate. and mike lee reports on lesser known figures who influence the u.s. constitution in written out of history. senators franken and lee will appear on our afterwards program in the coming weeks. and tom coburn officers thoughts on reducing government spending in smashing the d.c. monopoly. gram explores the relationships between china and the u.s. in destined for car. and sean mckeek n takes a closer look at the edgnd of the rule or the russian leadership. watch were many of the authors in the near future on booktv on c-span2. ....

>> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities.n't have -- did not have communications with the russians. >> the proficiency is if they've reached a, like, third grade level for reading, et cetera. >> no, i'm talking abut the debate between proficiency and growth, what your thoughts are on that. >> i hope you are as much fun on that dais as you were on your couch. >> well. >> may i are rephrase that, sir? >> please. please. please. oh my lord. oh my lord. >> well, i think we found our "saturday night live" sound byte. >> his new book, "al franken, giant of the senate" follows his path from "saturday night live" to congress. senator, welcome. >> thank you. >> pleasure to have you here. >> thank you all. >> great to see you. >> let's talk about washington. >> oh, yes. where i am half the time. >> tell us where you think the jared kushner circumstance is. >> well, he didn't disclose a lot of his contacts with mainly, i guess, russians. >> against the law or not? >> i think it is. i mean, you're supposed to -- in getting his security c

cruz does have a few words for franken now, telling politico.ing to sell books and apparently he's decided being obnoxious and insulting me is good for causing liberals to buy his books. i wish him all the best. >>> the cbo score because, you know, you were waiting to make your decision about health care until you saw the bill. >> yeah, we'll talk to you about that later. >> yeah, but there's not going to -- >> speak to shane, please. i'm sick and tired of you guys. the last guy that came in here did the same thing. >> the question that caused congressional candidate greg gianforte to, according to witnesses, attack a reporter was a seemingly innocuous one about the cbo scoring of the health care bill. gianforte had declined to take a position on the bill until the cbo analyzed it. after the bill passed the house he said, quote, personally i would have liked to have seen cbo results prior to the voting but we need to repeal and replace obamacare. he seems to want to skip comment on the republican unpopular alternative. but then the cbo score cam

>> no. >> giant of the senate. >> al franken giant of the senate by al franken.to get that. >> before the break i want to show you live pictures from orlando airport. >>> police are on the scene where a man is believed to have a weapon. a moment ago the airport authorities tweeted incident ongoing involving man in terminal. area contained. minimal impact to operations. airport operations. we are watching the situation. we'll bring you anymore information as we learn it. >>> tiger woods says alcohol was not involved. what does the breathalyzer test say? ...where each drop was formulated to be smarter.... ...even smarter than that... ...so if a color didn't go on evenly, it would balance itself out to reveal its truest, richest state. if a paint could realize the fullest potential of any color... ...you have to wonder... is it still paint? aura interior from benjamin moo®e . only available at independently owned paint and hardware stores. is america's number-one you kmotorcycle insurer. yeah, she does purr! best bike i ever owned! no, you're never alone, because ou

let's talk about this and so much more with al franken, the a thor of a brand-new book, "al franken, giant of the senate." i love that. who calls you that? >> i titled the book. but, you know, i ask the reader in the book to make a judgment for themselves whether i am, in fact, a giant in the senate. >> understood. before we get to the book or the serious news of the day, what is a covfete? >> it is a yiddish term for, i got to go to bed now. i think. >> it sounds like that's totally plausible. >> yeah. i mean, he got that from jared. i guess. >> do you think that there is anything relevant about the fact that the president sent out a gibberish tweet at midnight last night? >> no. i think -- i've done. i haven't done gibberish tweets and late at night you can make errors and i think this is the least disturbing thing in the history of the trump administration. >> all right. let's talk about the russia -- the investigations into russia. jared kushner, as you know, it has been reported that he may have attempted to set up a back channel with the russians before president trump was actu

>> al franken's the best. do you guys love al franken?nion shows and stuff. >> yeah, he's really great. >> jimmy: brilliant. and he's spent his entire like, career, you know, when you're a a comedian, all you want is people to obviously laugh at what you're saying. >> jimmy: yeah. >> and then so, he spent you know, 25 years being funny only to run for senate, and then having to not be funny and prove to -- that he was serious. you know? >> jimmy: and -- and you know he has jokes too. >> and you know he's sitting there. his whole book is about it. he's got this great new book out, it's called "a giant in the senate" and that's what i'm here to promote tonight. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: you're here to promote al franken's book? >> uh, yes actually. [ light laughter ] >> jimmy: that's so odd. >> he's so busy in the senate, that he's hired a bunch of us just to fan out across the country. >> jimmy: good for you. [ light laughter ] >> but it's a great book. i read it in one day, and i just love it. i think he should run for president. i love al f

franken: exactly. ms. miller: eliminating, not paying all the risk core door payments that were made. they knew exactly what they were doing. not giving assurances to those insurance companies that the reductions will continue. these are payments that help low income people pay out of cost when they go to get care. and those insurance companies, once again, the republicans who have done this, they know what they are doing. and um, these actions have been very targeted. the goal has been to undermine the individual market and to make obamacare fail. unfortunately, in some cases, they have gotten close to actually being successful. i think the good news is in places like pennsylvania i have worked very closely with our carriers recognizing that this is not been a very attractive market to participate in because of a lot of these actions. and we feel like we have put our market on a path to stability and it is really all the uncertainty and discussions happening in washington dc right now about repealing the

franken: i am finishing. while we sit here tearing up, i want to thank you for your testimony, they are cackling. is really reprehensible and thank you all. sen. stabenow: thank you so much. senator? ay: you make us feel better. you are like walking, talking antidepressants. you give us a reason to know that we have to, we have to to makeery single day sure that the house of , their healths care bill never becomes the law of the nation. and we are going to do that. we are going to fight every single day. key: their plan is a simple plan. by $880 billion, for the poor, for the sick, for the elderly, for the disabled, for our veterans. breakackage that as a tax for the wealthiest people in our country. ist is immoral, that inhumane. and we will not allow that to happen. if you could please republicans in the heart, you will break your toe. how they can harm the most vulnerable for -- in creating a tax break for the most well off, the most healthy, the most wealthy in the history of our country is absolutely, to

he has a new book out called "al franken giant of the senate."ut your book because you clearly wrote it. it's funny. >> thanks. >> so many political books that i have to read are not. >> this is a different kind of memoir from a senator because i came from -- i wrote a lot of these books, you know, and i'm funny. what's happened to me is kind of funny. >> you're the first in your family with a pasta maker? >> yes. humble background. >> right. we'll get to the book in a second. i want to ask you some of the stuff in the headlines today. you know, you're very good with language, obviously. the use of the term "back channel" to describe what jared kushner reportedly was doing for the russians, is that accurate to you? is that what it was, a back channel? >> that's trying to put some gloss on it that doesn't sound like what it was. we don't know. we'll find out. but normally a back channel isn't something where you go to the other country's communication system so your own intelligence can't hear it. that's what it sounds like kushner thought he was

. >> i want to ask you about your book, al franken: giant of the senate. you came into the senate, i think there was a little recount, it took alittle while. >> yes, you recall directly. >> and you were very serious. they could not get you to crack a joke, every tried, and it was clear that you were the new guy, and you wanted to prove your seriousness. are you now willing to joke? >> yes, than is my announcement today, i did crack jokes to my colleagues, but i want to make sure the people of minnesota knew that i had gone to the senate to do a serious job, and to prove the lives of people in minnesota, the united states, and it was incredibly close election. i was reelected comfortably in 2014, and i think the people in minnesota have gotten it and so i freed up a little wit, i decided to be a workhorse when i came to the senate, and now i am but i'm a workhorse with a sense of humor. >> you have proved yourself over and over again. >> thank you so much pb t. the wook is call-- book is call franken: giant of the senate." >>> we have a update now on the bo

minnesota senator al franken's new memoir., much more. >> woodruff: president trump's first overseas trip included meetings last week at nato and european union headquarters in brussels, and with other g-7 nations in sicily. germany is a key member of all three bodies, and in the aftermath of those meetings, chancellor angela merkel sounded notes of concern about president trump's stance on some key issues. chief among them: climate change and the paris agreement. to discuss this and other matters, i spoke a short time ago with germany's ambassador to the united states, peter wittig. >> woodruff: ambassador peter witig, thank you for joining us. >> a pleasure to be here. >> let me start with the terrible incident this morning in kabul, afghanistan. this is a normally considered safe area, diplomatic area. but the german embassy was among the many places affected. you had a german citizen with was injured, others who work at the embassy, one died, another severely injured. does this give your government pause, does it give you

and former saturday night cast member and senator al franken will discuss. and nbc chris hayes will look at racial inequality in the united states. >> this era of what we know starts at the moment of-- or the peak of the level rights movement in the chronically bound sense that we think of it and it starts at the moment when, you know, jim crowe legislation is being dismantled. huge up in the northern cities and the fight comes to northern cities where essentially the fight is lost. i mean, you get the fair housing act, in some ways it's a high water mark, but then you have the busing fights and you get what you get. you get essentially a society that gives up on the project of desegregation as a social. and there are dozens of court decisions that whittle away from it, parent involve almost makes it impossible to create a desegregation theme voluntarily through a school district, through the abandonment of fair housing legislation, everybody. like the enforcement of it, right? so what facilitates this, we have each other living near each other. we've given

when i heard the senator from minnesota, franken, talking about his elaborate theory, i was thinking, who gave him the tinfoil hat? that is so way out there. it's a great theory. he would make a great novel but show me evidence. people involved with the russians and russians involved in the election without a shred of evidence connecting them. until you get it, it's a concoction by the democrats. i am open to evidence. show it to me. >> bret: moments ago the president tweeted "sally yates made the fake media extremely unhappy. she said nothing but old news." we will wrap up on that. next up, turn of barack obama and the next steps on repealing and replacing ♪ surfing is a sport that takes a lot out of you physically. from the moment i wake up on my tempur-pedic mattress i feel like i'm ready to take on the day. i don't have aches and pains from the previous day's training. and i feel like myself. i wake up feeling stronger, a better surfer a better me. ♪ .. if you want to stay on top of your health, one simple thing to do -- is take the pledge to go and get screened for the cancers th

professor, we hear senator franken saying basically senator sessions said he would recuse himself heshould not be part of this, that it is inappropriate to be part of looking for a replacement. do you agree? >> the senator is wrong. the attorney general recused himself in the investigation of the presidential campaign of 2016. he remains the boss of the fbi director. he has a responsibility to evaluate him and to say something when the director exceeds his authority, when he acts unethically in the way director comey did. >> the white house is saying essentially it is a personnel issue and you seem to agree. >> yes. the problem with the focus on recusal is where do you draw the line? do we think he should have no role in evaluating the next director? he will be the boss of that person as well. should we say he shouldn't have conversations with the president of the united states because the president may be under investigation as well? recusal is supposed to be narrow, about a limited conflict of interest. the united states attorney genre mains the nation's chief law enforcement offic

franken called it a complete betrayal of his commitment to the public that he wouldn't be involved intigation. we have learned sessions is also interviewing candidates to replace comey, meaning jeff sessions will have a key role in picking who will be in charge of the russia investigation. the very investigation he vowed not to be a part of. >> based on his commitment from march, attorney general sessions needs to recuse from participating in the vetting of those candidates as well. attorney general sessions shouldn't be involved in selecting the next director of the fbi. >> reporter: the white house sees it very differently. >> look, the fbi is doing a lot more than the russia investigation. he should absolutely have a role in seeing who runs that agency and that department. >> reporter: randy kaye, cnn, new york. >> well, paul butler worked with rod rosenstein at the justice department and is now a law professor at georgetown. he joins me along with laura coats. professor, we hear senator franken saying basically senator sessions said he would recuse himself he should not be part of

franken: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to discuss the trump administration's efforts to undo the open internet order. together we must protect net neutrality and ensure that all content on the internet receives equal treatment, equal treatment from broadband providers regardless of who owns the content or how deep their pockets are. two years ago american consumers and businesses celebrated the f.c.c.'s landmark vote to preserve a free and open internet by reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under title 2 of the communications act. the vote came after the f.c.c. received nearly four million public comments, the vast majority of which urged the agency to enact strong rules protecting net neutrality. consumers urged the commission to protect their unfettered and affordable access to content. a wide range of advocacy organizations pressed the commission to ensure that broadband providers couldn't pick and choose which voices and ideas would actually reach consumers, and small and large businesses

>> jesse: i do, i don't think franken is going to run.nk you will stay in minnesota and make jokes that no one laughed at. i don't think these celebrities are going to work. they are going to do trump ligh light. kind of imitating that -- i don't think that works. i think you need a total contrast to president trump. i remember when bush ran for reelection, they want to john kerry because he had experience in the military. during the iraq war. it doesn't really work. you need someone the opposite of trump if you are a democrat. to fire up the base and run a country. >> kimberly: who would that be, richard? >> jesse: elizabeth warren. >> dana: we are glad you are here, richard. >> richard: one contender. in november. president joe biden. >> greg: he's going to be quite old. >> richard: here's the thing, democrats -- there's a lot of arguments about why we lost in the election. i can rehash it but i won't. part of it is we lost working-class americans. there's one guy in the country that really gets working-class folk, that's joe biden. he

al franken, who is my guy? he is a book coming out this month. >> a franken-warren ticket would be the best ticket. >> who is that guy from texas? >> ted cruz? >> ted cruz. my man teddy cruz. >> they have to do what they plan on doing. nominate oprah, she wins. i'm not kidding. get to the point. put her up there. she wins. it don't even hold the election. it is over. what is interesting about zuckerberg is that he treats the midwest like he is an astronaut landing. these strange people in a diner. what is this thing you called milk, where does it come from? does it come from a four-legged creature, i think i saw one out there? you are a 32-year-old billionaire in silicon valley. you have everything but you know you are going to die. the thing is, they are trying to figure out what else can i do. they are all consumed by living forever. they are trying to figure out ways to do that or get a more power. jesse is right. he's not a very social person. ironically, facebook began as an antisocial pool. it was a reaction -- it was his how you can rely a

senator franken: minnesota has a lot of rural health systems. [laughter] franken: understand that.nd when i went around minnesota, the first iteration , i heard from hospitals and nursing homes, clinics, that this was terrible for rural health systems. systemwould affect your in terms of employing the number of people you can employ, what would it do to your system? come up withave to a strategy of how to cut. peninsula andper there are seven other hospitals that exist in counties with hot -- some of the highest unemployment rates in the state. there are women who drive 100 miles to deliver their babies to marquette, and sometimes to the x.ou we have delivered three babies in our emergency department in the last four years, delivered a ckinaw island. it will have a devastating effect on us and the communities, not only across the northern peninsula but you have critical access hospitals in the united states serving rural america. they will be hit hard. senator franken: that is exactly what i hear. miller, i think we have heard how the law has helped people. it is not perfect. one o

senator franken. >> thank you, madam chair. in reading through the testimony provided for today's hearings, it became clear that some of the witnesses are quite alarmed about the threat of an emp attack as a potential societal impacts and others are clearly more circumspect. chairman lafleur, could you comment on where we should direct the efforts and resources we devote to enhancing grid security? what should our priorities be, what would you place physical attacks? cyber attacks, emps, gmd is and other threats on a triage list. >> well, it's a difficult question because we are comparing attacks that are very numerous and kind of low barriers to entry like savage critic we don't have to be nationstate. people can do it as so let's add high impact low probability. i think that first of all we had to have a strategy for all attack. right now i would probably put cybersecurity at number one but that doesn't mean we don't need to protect our substations and physical attacks or that we don't need to protect against solar storms whi

franken: thank you. for the rest of the century. thank you. mr. president, i rise today to talk about the house republican health care bill and the devastating effect that it would have on people with mental illness and those affected by the nation's opioid epidemic. nationwide, more than 52,000 americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, the most recent year for which data are available. with 63% of those deaths involving an opioid. this means that drug overdose deaths now surpass the number of people that die each year from automobile accidents or firearms. that same year, in minnesota, we lost more than 570 people to drug overdoses. about half of those deaths were tied to prescription medication, particularly opiate pain relievers. and another 20% of those deaths were associated with heroin. we saw drug overdose deaths jump 11 percentage points in minnesota from 2014 to 2015. the opioid epidemic knows no boundaries. it has touched people and families of all incomes, all races and of all ages. some communities in minnesota have been hit particul

>> no. >> giant of the senate, al franken, thank you so much.g in senator mike lee and tom coburn both with their new books. also ahead master class in public relations at the state department yesterday. we'll play for you one longtime official's very difficult day at the press podium when we return. thanks for the ride around norfolk! and i justanted say, geico is proud to have served the military for over 75 years! roger that. captain's waiting to give you a tour of the wisconsin now. could've parked a little bit closer... it's gonna be dark by the time i get there. geico®. proudly serving the military for over 75 years. can we at least analyze customer can we push the offer online? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday? yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. bp uses flir cameras - a new thermal imagining technology - to inspect difficult-to-reach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans

senator franken. >> thank you, madam chair. in reading through the testimony provided for today's hearing, it became clear that some of the witnesses are concerned about the societal impacts and others are more circumspect. chairman le fleur, could you comment on where we should direct the efforts and resources we devote to enhancing security, what should our priorities be, where would you place physical attacks. emds, on a frtriage list. >> we are comparing attacks that are very numerous and low barriers to entry, like cyber security, you don't have to be a nation state. a lot of people can do it to high impact, low probability. i think that first of all, we have to have a strategy for all attacks, i think right now i would probably put cyber security as number one, but that doesn't mean we don't need to present our substations from physical attacks or that we don't need to protect against solar storms, which we are protecting against and work on the emp issue and figure out how to protect that. i think taking a step back, to

when i heard the senator from minnesota, franken, talking about his elaborate theory, i was thinking,him the tinfoil hat? that is so way out there. it's a great theory. he would make a great novel but show me evidence. people involved with the russians and russians involved in the election without a shred of evidence connecting them. until you get it, it's a concoction by the democrats. i am open to evidence. show it to me. >> bret: moments ago the president tweeted "sally yates made the fake media extremely unhappy. she said nothing but old news." we will wrap up on that. next up, turn of barack obama and the next steps on repealing and replacing obamacare. so beautiful. what shall we call you? tom! name it tom! studies show that toms have the highest average earning potential over their professional lifetime. see? uh, it's a girl. congratulations! two of my girls are toms. i work for ally, finances are my thing. you know, i'm gonna go give birth real quick and then we'll talk, ok? nice baby. let's go. here comes tom #5! nothing, stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do i

franken was asked about it this morning. >> the meetings weren't disclosed and there's a whole bunch of these from trump administration officials or former trump administration officials they aren't acting like people who have nothing to hide. >> the year ago, it was the trump campaign and republicans attacking hillary clinton's handling of classified information. perhaps a sign of lessons learned by democrats in the 2016 campaign. >> bret: mike, thank you president trump has called afghanistan's leader to express condolences over the killing of dozens of people in a massive suicide truck bombings today in kabul, afghanistan. americans are said to be among the hundreds injured. so far, no group has claimed responsibility. a massive attack added to a number of them in recent days and weeks. john huddy is following the story. >> the black cloud of smoke rose from the site of one of the worst terror attacks in kabul since 2014. as some afghan officials said, the worst ever in the city. 90 people were killed. more than 450 injured, including 11 u.s. security contractors. afghan police of

not really giving any details there on some of the questions from senator franken on possible trump and associate links to russia. we'll let you know if anything changes there. watch iing the dow. down 16 points. the s&p 500 off a quarter of a percentage point. and the nasdaq down a half a percent. taking a pause coming off that record high. we'll be right back. and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. >>> markets modestly lower. nasdaq continues to be the leerd. apple down slightly hurting pfotenhauer indexes. also take a look at disney. it is the worst performer in the dow. it's the biggest drag down close to 2%. not a lot of dramatic new, but a lot of swirling talk about the prospects for espn as the competitors start coming through into the market. about 112 down to $2.10. >>> one of the worst days for the nasd

in the russia investigation and his new book, here al franken giant of the senate.even the cover is funny. so we look forward into diving that with him. >> can't wait. see you at the top of the hour. >> has your kid ever bought something on amazon without your permission? this has happened to me. you may be getting a refund. i'll tell you how next. you know, you missed a bunch of great guys today? where? everywhere you went. who? i don't know, but you could know with new missed connections from match. check it out... oh, crossed paths with john. you had no idea. check out new missed connections on match. start for free today! >>> let's get a check on cnn money stream. global markets u.s. futures mixed. wall street closed lower ending a seven day winning streak for the nasdaq and s&p. few tech companies hit new highs. google, alphabet, tesla record highs. amazon hit $1,000 a share during trading, closeed a little bit below. tech stocks have been on fire. up 20%. has your kid ever bought something on amazon withouter permission. you may get your money back. amazon is

>> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians. >> david, of course, the reality as we know, is that he was a surrogate for the campaign. he was saying the campaign didn't come up. advisor for the trump campaign, meetings with the russians, not disclosed there and not disclosed on this form. does it add up to anything to you? >> sure. heads-up to the fact he wasn't truthful. he didn't fully disclose. in his defense i must tell you i haven't filled out some of the those forms for a long, long time. but they're exhaustive. you need legal help frequently. just remember when you read that question out it was on page 76. >> yes. >> that means there were at least 75 other pages in this disclosure. i think juliette is at the right point which is this particular question is a serious question. it jumps outs on the form saying were talking to a foreign government and it does not exclude you, does not give you a pass if you'r

franken: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: mr.resident, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to talk about the health care bill that the house of representatives has passed and is currently being considered behind closed doors by my republican colleagues. i travel around greater minnesota all the time, and when the republican health care plan first came out, i traveled to rural minnesota to meet with rrl hospitals, nursing home providers and constituents to hear how this bill would impact their lives and communities. they are upset and they are, frankly, scared. in perm, minnesota, i heard from a woman who was in tears not knowing where her mother would go if the republican plan passed and she lost her nursing home coverage. this woman and her husband work full time, but together they cannot afford the around-the-clock care that her mother needs. later at a nursing home in morehead -- that's in minnesota across the river from fargo --

. >> senator franken. >> thank you madam chair. in reading through the testimony provided for today's hearing, it became clear that some of the witnesses are quite alarmed about the threat of the potential societal impact, and others are clearly more circumspect. could you comment on where we should direct the efforts and resources we devote to enhancing security, what should our priorities be, where would you place physical attacks which is on -- cyber attacks, gmd's, and other threats on a triage list. >> it's a difficult question because we are preparing attacks that are very numerous and low barriers to entry like cyber security. you don't have to be a nationstate a lot of people do it for high-impact low probability. i think the first row we have to have a strategy with all i would probably put cyber security is number one we don't have to stop from physical attacks or protect against solar storms which we are protecting against. i think taking a step back, to me where we should be going through solution is to build resilience

>> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities.ed a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians. >> that's the last part there. i did not have communications with the russians. he could have easily said as a senator i had a very innocent quick routine meeting with the russian ambassador that had nothing to do with anything important. he yelled at me and i yelled at him and it was over. he said i did not have communications with the russians. he did have communications with the russians. >> and if the statement today or yesterday i guess is true that he was acting on the advice that was given to him that foreign dignitaries were considered part of senate procedure and didn't count, then he's gotten a bad wrap but why wasn't that the explanation we got last time of there was instances of failure to disclose contacts? this explanation was never offered. it was instead that he didn't think he had to. so there's a lot of questions. >> a lot of questions and we'll continue. up next more

senator franken: of course. i would point out, too, that right before the podesta emails came out that roger stone said it would soon be time for thesta's "time in barel." -- "the barrel." so, i think there may be a little bit of a "there" there. i know senator cornyn is not here. i think it is a shame that he says that hillary yesterday in this forum blamed everyone but herself. she took a lot of blame on herself. i think she -- when she referenced what you did was 11 days before the election which has been a subject here, that and also the russian interference, i think she was only saying stuff that other people have said. i mean, i do not think she was saying anything that a lot, a lot of people also think had an effect on the election. so i just think it was a shame that the senator from texas -- i do not know if he meant to leave that out deliberately -- but she did not blame everyone but herself. thank you mr. chairman. >> before i call in the next senator there are two things i would like to say. what you

. >> reporter: democratic senator al franken slammed sessions in a statement. saying he was deeply troubled. franken called it a complete betrayal of his commitment to the public that he wouldn't be involved in the investigation. on top of that, we've learned sessions is also interviewing candidates to replace comey. meaning, jeff sessions will have a key role in picking who will be in charge of the russia investigation. the very investigation he vowed not to be a part of. >> based on his commitment from march, attorney general sessions needs to recuse from participating in the vetting of those candidates, as well. attorney general sessions shouldn't be involved in selecting the next director of the fbi. >> reporter: the white house sees it very differently. >> look, the fbi is doing a whole lot more than the russian investigation. he should absolutely have a role in seeing who runs that agency and that department. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> randi, thanks for that reporting. >>> stay with us on "cnn newsroom." computers crippled, totally useless

senator franken said -- "this is a complete betrayal of his commitment to the public that he wouldn't be involved in the investigation." on tuesday, white house press secretary sean spicer defended trump's firing of comey. >> i also find it interesting that the same individuals who are out there leaking these statements on the other side of the aisle are the same people, including the minority leader, who said very clearly a few months ago "i have lost confidence in the fbi director." so the same people from nancy pelosi to chuck schumer to adam schiff, over and over again, question his ability to effectively lead the fbi. it seems a bit ironic that they're now sort of questioning the president's decision to side was something that they clearly articulated a few months back. amy: this money, donald trump tweeted -- in recent months, james comey had come under widespread criticism from many democrats for notifying lawmakers just before the election that the fbi was once again investigating whether clinton had sent classified information from her private email server while she was secre

it just pushes it out in order to damage. >> thank you. >> senator franken. >> thank you. good to see you, mr. director. i'm going to kind of pick up where sheldon whitehouse, senator whitehouse was going. are you familiar with a report called the kremlin playbook? >> no. >> this is an expert report that exhaustively documents russia's past efforts to undermine european democracies according to the report, russia is known to cultivate close ties with business and political leaders and target countries. this is stuff you acknowledge that you knew happened. the report explains that russia has cultivated an opaque network of patronage across the region that uses influenced to direct decision-making. in other words, russia has a strategy of creating the conditions that give rise to corruption. then exploiting the corruption to benefit. in the intelligence community's unclassified assessment of the russian campaign to influence the american election, our nation's intelligence agency right hooton has had many positive experiences working with western political leaders whose busi