WATCH: Al Franken Claps Back at Ted Cruz Over Attorney General Nominee

Image by Getty Images
Al Franken savaged Ted Cruz on Wednesday, as the two participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Jeff Sessions’ nomination for attorney general.
“Let’s talk about who is trying to impugn the record of another senator,” Franken said, responding to Cruz’s claim that Franken was smearing Sessions in disputing the Alabama senator’s record on civil rights (this part of the video starts about four minutes in). “I think Senator Cruz is trying to impugn mine,” the Minnesotan continued, outlining evidence that Sessions did not do as much to protect voting access as he asserted during his confirmation hearings.
Cruz’s fellow Texas senator John Cornyn jumped on Franken for his criticism of Cruz, saying that Franken was trying to disparage another senator while he was not present. Cruz was not present when Franken spoke.
“Senator Cruz did the very thing Senator Cornyn is accusing me of doing,” Franken hit back, after the committee chair let Franken proceed with his remarks. “In my absence … he personally went after me, he personally impugned my integrity. You didn’t object then, did you?”
Trump’s nomination of Sessions as attorney general has proven one of his most contentious choices, given the Alabama senator’s record on civil rights and decades-old allegations that he made racist comments while a federal prosecutor.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV In ‘The Rehearsal,’ Nathan Fielder fights the removal of his Holocaust fashion episode
-
Fast Forward AJC, USC Shoah Foundation announce partnership to document antisemitism since World War II
-
Yiddish יצחק באַשעװיסעס מיינונגען וועגן די אַמעריקאַנער ייִדןIsaac Bashevis’ opinion of American Jews
אין זײַנע „פֿאָרווערטס“־אַרטיקלען האָט ער קריטיקירט זייער צוגאַנג צום חורבן און צו ייִדישקײט.
-
Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.