PHILADELPHIA - He was back in his old "Saturday Night Live" satirist mode Monday evening as he addressed a national TV audience.
“I’m Al Franken, Minnesotan, senator and world-renowned expert on right-wing megalomaniacs: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and now Donald Trump,” he deadpanned in a brief, prime-time speech to the Democratic National Convention’s opening night in Philadelphia.
Franken was in a parade of Democratic elected officials who marched across the stage to attack the Republican presidential nominee. Franken just did it with more humor than the others.
“I got my doctorate in megalomaniac studies at Trump University,” he joked, referring to the now-defunct real estate school that the billionaire mogul once established.
“Sure he scammed a lot of people, but did you know that Trump University’s school of ripping people off is ranked second in the nation, right behind Bernie Madoff University,” he said.
Franken then facetiously commended Trump U’s business school. “Their bankruptcy program in particular is known throughout the real estate community for its creativity. The most popular course, Bankruptcy 101, how to leave your partners holding the bag, is taught by a cardboard cutout of himself.”
Four minutes into his 7½-minute speech, Franken dropped the riff on the GOP candidate and made a serious pitch for his longtime friend and political ally Hillary Clinton, who will be nominated for president Tuesday night.
But his spoof on Trump probably surprised Washington insiders from whom he’s largely concealed his sense of humor for the past eight years.
“This is the first time I’ve heard him be funny since he’s been in the U.S. Senate,” said CNN political analyst Gloria Borger.
Franken wasn't the only elected Minnesotan to speak Monday.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, one of Bernie Sanders’ first and most vocal congressional supporters, pleaded with the Vermont senator’s backers at the Democratic National Convention Monday night to continue fighting for their principles but now shift their aim to electing Hillary Clinton and defeating Donald Trump.
Ellison, a Minneapolis Democrat, introduced Sanders, who delivered the night’s keynote address. The congressmen chided Sanders' supporters who have threatened not to vote for the party’s ticket.
“Not voting is not protest. It’s surrender,” Ellison said in prepared remarks.
But he also praised them for launching a movement. “Together, we called for climate justice, racial justice, wage justice,” he said. “And we have made our voices heard!”
