paul wellstone, who -- i dedicate -- charlie: the progressive senator from minnesota.l: whose seat i hold, i guess. also hubert humphries' and walter mondale's. he was a hero of mine. i dedicate the book to him and o his wife sheila. he died less than two weeks before in a plane crash, he and his family and others. his daughter and wife and others in the staff and the pilot. and there were a sequence of events where there was a memorial for him that was very much about paul. paul had this exuberance an energy. and he was sort of -- i write about this at length in "lies and lying liars with tell them" and that was taken by the republicans and they said that we -- that there was some inappropriate things said during that and it was used in a certain way. norm coleman ended up winning that election and he beat walter mondale who had stepped in at the last minute. charlie: the former -- the former vice president. al: yeah. a couple of months after coleman had taken office , he did a profile, he did his first profile in "roll call" and he said, i'm a 99% improvement over pa

>> paul wellstone who was senator from minnesota, the seat i hold -- it was also humphries said, we allo better when we all do better, and that is what we believe. the economy grows from the middle out, not from the top down. soledad: you used to satirize elected officials, and now you are the elected official. i wrote the book in large part to answer the question i get asked the most, which is, is being a senator as much fun is working on "saturday night live"? the answer is, no! why would it be? but it's the best job i've ever had. it's the best job i've ever had because i get to work to improve people's lives. soledad: would you go back to comedy? >> george burns worked until he was 100. strum thurman worked until he was 100. soledad: it was nice to have you. " heext on "matter of fact, was just four when he was liberated from auschwitz. his picture was seen around the world. >> we got an email that said, i was little boy behind you. >> find out how a photo spurred a reunion for childhood survivors. soledad: every year, dozens of journalists give their lives in pursuit of the truth d

paul wellstone, a garrulous, proud liberal and progressive. pete domenici, a proud conservative. one from minnesota, one from new mexico, and they came together on an issue. you know what the issue was? each of them had someone they loved in their family who suffered from a mental illness. and they said why in the world will health insurance companies refuse to write coverage for people with mental illness? they fought for years against the insurance companies, and they finally won. and we included in the affordable care act the requirement that your health insurance policy cover not only physical illness but mental illness. it was a breakthrough. for the first time we stopped treating mental illness like a curse and treated it like an illness that could be treated. they added a section at the end that most of us didn't even notice. mental illness and substance abuse treatment. i didn't know it was there until the opioid crisis, and i started going to these rehab facilities and saying to these people there, how are you paying for this care? some of them were under medicaid. but t

that's what paul wellstone, who i dedicate the book to, to him and his wife, who is senator from minnesotahat he said, that politics is not about winning, it's not about money, it's about improving people's lives. >> what about the people it may now be attracting. talk about the celebification of -- will oprah now run? >> when i ran in 2008, minnesotans were wary of people, as well they should be, by the way. >> they like pro wrestlers more. >> we did have a -- and that is a form of show business. norm coleman ran against him for governor and lost to him and he's lost to a pro wrestler and a comedian. i want him to run statewide again against a human cannon ball or a rodeo clown. i just want him to lose to someone else in show business. >> political question. just in terms of candidates on the democratic side, do you have a name, nick yanybody you thinke yourself -- >> not me. >> to run against president trump in 2020? every democrat says they don't have any names. who would it be. >> that's fun to talk about. we've got stuff in front of us right now like health care. and talking about imp

you know, paul wellstone, who -- >> great man. >> a great man, and i dedicate the book to him and toa, his wife. he said that politics isn't about winning. it isn't about money. it is about improving people's lives, and that's the benefit. that's what i get a kick out of. two weeks in, i passed a bill. johnny isakson, from georgia, pretty conservative republican was my co-sponsor on a bill that got service dogs to veterans of iraq and afghanistan that suffered invisible wounds, ptsd. >> thank you. i think that's a great thing to do. i've been at some of those events. it's funny about senators. when i worked there in the '70s, i'd watch these great old senators like -- well, some of them were not all great, but frank church, humphrey and all. they were all out of the movies to me. they would walk around in almost a senatorial walk. they were very -- what's the right word? processional in the way they walked around, and they really did act like they were british actually. and you're not like that. but this picture on the cover of this book is so deep in levels of satire. you look like

i told the story repeatedly, and i won't tell it in detail, but it was paul wellstone and pete domenici, a republican conservative from new mexico. they came together because they each had a member-their family that suffered from mental illness. they said, why is it that we don't treat mental illness like an illness? why does medical insurance just treat physical illness. we said if you offer health insurance, you have to cover mental health. it is time to step out of the shadows when mental illness was treated -- we put in the bill and most americans would agree it was the right thing to do. there was another part of it that slipped my attention and now i know it's critically important. it wasn't just mental illness, it was coverage for mental illness and substance abuse treatment. how important is substance abuse treatment in america today? go to maine, go to iowa, go to illinois and ask the question -- any problems with opioids, heroin, overdosing, death? of course. and when you go to the rehab and treatment centers and you ask: how is your family paying for this care to try to rescu

paul wellstone was a great guy. i couldn't help but love him, whatever your politics. d over here was pete domenici. he was a conservative republican senator from new mexico. wellstone of minnesota, domenici of new mexico. what would those two have in common? what they had in common is each of them had someone in their family with a mental illness, and they watched what happened to that loved one and their family, and the two of them teamed up and said you know what? from that point forward when you buy health insurance in america, it's not just going to be physical health that it's going to cover. it's going to be mental health. because so many families are touched by mental illness, some very serious forms, some not so serious but need medical help, they all should be covered. so they put that provision in the affordable care act. so now when you buy a health insurance policy in america, it's not hit or miss. it covers mental illness, as it should. then they added a provision which most of us didn't pay attention to, and we should and we do now. mental illness and sub