Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) may be a die-hard progressive, but he seems to be getting tired of this excuse tour Hillary Clinton has subjected us to in recent weeks. Some other Democrats are starting to have the same feelings about this endless blame game. So far, Clinton has assembled a grocery list of factors that she feels sank her presidential dreams. The news media, James Comey, the Russians, sexism, misogyny, and the Democratic National Committee have all made her enemies list. She tore into her party for giving her a data operation that she says was in shambles; that’s debatable. And ripped The New York Times for covering her email server and the allegations that she possibly mishandled classified information since the email system, from which she conducted all State Department business as our top diplomat under the Obama administration, was unsecure and unauthorized. If she had used a government email and followed the 2009 regulations laid out by the National Archives and Records Administration, none of this would have happened. The FBI wouldn’t have become involved and this issue wouldn’t have torpedoed her character (i.e. trust, honesty, etc.) with voters.
Of course, in the interview Franken had with Yahoo! News’ Katie Couric, he said he still loves Hillary, adding that she would have been a good president. He also said that she has the right to analyze why she lost, but at some point—the show does go on.
“I love Hillary. I think she is very prepared to be president of the United States … and I think she has a right to analyze what happened, but we do have to move on,” Franken said. “We have to move on by proving we are the party that cares about a lot of the people who voted for Donald Trump.”
Franken used Trump’s health care proposal as an example, noting that more Americans “say they have seen a ghost” than approve of the American Health Care Act.
“We are the ones fighting for average, working people,” Franken said.
He also criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, calling the move to leave the landmark climate deal “sad” and “stupid.”
“Every other country in the world, except Syria and Nicaragua, has signed on. … This is an existential threat to us, to the rest of the world,” Franken said. “This is an enormous threat to the national security.”
Again, she started a super PAC—Onward Together—that is devoted to fighting the Trump agenda. So, she’s not going away.