Posted on 07/20/2015 1:38:39 PM PDT by jimbo123
Before Al Franken was a U.S. senator, he was a comedian and political satirist -- one who joked about Sen. John McCain's status as a war hero.
"I have tremendous respect for McCain but I don't buy the war hero thing. Anybody can be captured. I thought the idea was to capture them. As far as I'm concerned he sat out the war," Franken, a Democrat who now represents Minnesota, quipped to Salon for a 2000 article about the stakes of that year's presidential election.
Franken's comments are getting new life 15 years later amid the controversy surrounding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's comments this weekend that McCain -- who was tortured for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam -- is "not a war hero."
Standing alone, Franken's comments could seem insensitive to POWs and their families, but an episode of Franken's radio show four years later that included McCain as a guest made it clear that the comments were intended to be received sarcastically.
"I mean, I consider you a hero, tremendous political courage, not, you know, the thing about five years, or five and a half years at the Hanoi Hilton; as far as I'm concerned you just sat out the war. I don't consider that real heroism. Anybody can get captured, right?" Franken said to McCain during the 2004 show, according to a transcript provided by Franken's office.
Franken also wrote in his book "Lies: And the Lying Liars who Tell Them" that the McCain joke is "called irony" and got "big laughs" when he told it at the 1999 White House Photographers Dinner.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Franken, who literally stole the election (felons voting, after several recounts and discounting the illegal votes, he actually lost), gets a pass. Move along neocons, nothing to see....
Tell me I’m dreaming though, as it actually looks like CNN was doing some legitimate reporting.
Both Trump and Franken are cowards and not worthy to kiss the ground McCain or any other member of the military walk on.
Wow, forgot all about this unfunny pos.
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