Posted 1:03 PM by Scoobie Davis

Al Franken Smacked Around Katherine Harris on Late Night With Conan O'Brien Last Night
CONAN: You claim that you saw former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris recently. You saw her?

AL: I did.

CONAN: In person?

AL: Yeah. For the audience that doesn’t know, she’s the one who, in Florida, the Secretary of State in Florida who declared the election for Bush anytime she could. [audience laughs] And so I was up at the Kennedy School, the Kennedy Library actually. Every two years they have a seminar for incoming freshmen, Congresspeople. She won in Florida; she’s a Congresswoman...So Katherine Harris is one of these freshmen and so I did this presentation with Norman Ornstein who’s a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and during the presentation, I said, “Our role here is to tell you things you need to know as a member of Congress and one thing every member of Congress needs to know is how to take a punch. It’s going to happen to you sooner or later-at a town hall meeting, an angry constituent is going to hit you. So you need to know how to take a punch, so I need a volunteer. [Al looks around the room] Ummmm. Katherine Harris.” [Conan and the audience laugh]. And she laughed. [more laughter]

CONAN: And you hit her? Yeah?

AL: But later we were getting on the bus and she said, “Oh, I really thought you were funny” and I went, [in a falsetto voice]”Oh, Katherine Harris likes me. I’m so happy.” ...And I said, “Do you want to hear the joke I didn’t tell?” and she said, “Sure.” I said, “Okay, well, five of the freshmen were educated here at the Kennedy School—got their Master’s here, including Katherine Harris. Right here at the Kennedy School is where Katherine Harris learned to purge African-Americans from the voting rolls.” [nervous laughter from the audience] And she said, “Oh, I don’t think the Kennedy School would have liked that.” [Conan and the audience laugh]

CONAN: [laughing] She didn’t say, "That’s not true."

AL: She didn’t say that wasn’t true.

CONAN: Spreading joy wherever you go, Al.

For more on the phony felon purge in Florida, click here.

Tomorrow: Al Franken on George W. Bush's racist tactics