- The Washington Times - Friday, September 27, 2019

Al Franken has remained somewhat active in Senate politics since resigning in disgrace nearly two years ago, the Minnesota Democrat indicated in an interview aired Thursday.

Mr. Franken told talk show host Conan O’Brien that he has reached out to his former colleagues after leaving office to recommend how to carry out their duties on Capitol Hill.

“You were very effective in hearings. You really were,” Mr. O’Brien said. “Do you find yourself yelling at the screen because you have an idea for the right question and the person on the screen is not asking that question?”

“Yes,” Mr. Franken replied after a brief pause. “Yes, that happens. Sometimes I have emailed my colleagues during hearings and said this might be good [to ask]. It is very frustrating.”

Mr. Franken, 68, served in the Senate for nearly nine years before resigning in the wake of being the subject of sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced in late 2017. He announced earlier this week that he will host a weekly radio show on the SiriusXM satellite service, “The Al Franken Show,” starting this Saturday.

“When this first happened, if you had asked me, ’have you ever made a woman feel uncomfortable by the way you put your arm around her or touch her or something like that, I would’ve said no,” Mr. Franken said on “Conan” about the circumstances that led to his resignation. “And after all these allegations came in, I thought, well, I must be doing something wrong.

“Ever since I’ve been a lot more mindful in my interactions with pretty much everyone,” he said.

A comedian prior to entering politics, Mr. Franken and Mr. O’Brien, 56, both worked as writers on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” at the same time in the late 1980s.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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