Al Franken signs one of the books he authored for a rally attendee Saturday.
Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, known for his political satire and his time on “Saturday Night Live” before entering office, took his best comedic shots at Donald Trump while supporting Democrats during a rally held in Carson City on Saturday.
Franken attended the rally held at the Carson City Democratic headquarters before a gathering of Democratic supporters who packed a small space in front of the Democratic headquarters. There were also a few protesters across the street demonstrating against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Democratic senator was there to campaign for Clinton, Democratic senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto and Democrat Chip Evans who’s running against incumbent Republican U.S. representative Mark Amodei of Carson City.
Evans was also at the rally to campaign for Clinton and Masto and introduced Franken.
Franken made sure to pronounce Nev-AD-a correctly, noting he knew the pronunciation wasn’t Nev-AH-da. He also joked he was glad to be in Carson City after flying into Reno, pronouncing it with a short e.
He then focused on the election. “Nevada is ground zero in this election,” Franken said. “I’ve seen the job Republicans are doing in the senate. That’s why you’ve got to elect Catherine Cortez Masto.”
He described the race between Masto and Republican Joe Heck to replace the outgoing Harry Reid as a “dead heat.”
Stressing the importance of every vote counting, Franken noted when he first ran for the senate he won by 312 votes.
While saying Clinton shares the Democratic values “we’re better when we all do better,” he focused much of his time on Trump.
“Donald Trump wants to do the old trickle down,” said Franken, referring to trickle down economics. “It doesn’t work. It’s never worked.”
He also said about Trump, “we’ve never seen somebody say this stuff. We’ve never seen an election like this. We’ve never seen a candidate like this.”
Franken didn’t hold back, referring to Trump as a narcissist. He also joked one would need a “doctorate from Trump University” to analyze Trump’s personality, referring to Trump’s controversial education enterprise.
He also talked about Trump’s dispute with the Khan family. The father of Humuyan Khan, who was killed in Iraq, Khirz Khan challenged Trump on if he had read the Constitution.
Franken noted in response to Khirz Khan, Trump said, “He has no right to say I haven’t read the Constitution,” emphasizing the irony of that statement.
He also talked about Michael Bloomberg’s speech at the Democratic National Convention when Bloomberg said the country needs a president who’s “sane and competent.”
“That’s the lowest bar we’ve every had,” Franken said. “But it’s true.”
He also told the crowd, “thanks for Harry you guys. We’re going to miss Harry.”
Franken shared a story about Reid. Franken was placed in charge of a senate session when President Barack Obama gave an address to a joint session of Congress in 2011.
Reid instructed Franken to immediately gavel the senate back into the session as soon as Obama’s address was finished. In an effort to do so, Franken stuck close to Reid and the two passed through a large number of media.
Franken whispered to Reid “Harry talk to me like I’m important.” Without missing a beat, Franken said Reid told him “that would be impossible.”