Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) tweeted Monday that it’s time for people to start taking President Trump “literally.”
“It’s time to stop taking Trump seriously and to start taking him literally,” Franken tweeted Monday afternoon, referencing a 2016 column in The Atlantic by Salena Zito arguing that the press takes Trump “literally, but not seriously” while his supporters take him “seriously, but not literally.”
{mosads}The tweet was the former senator’s first in about two weeks that was not simply a link to his podcast, and comes as Trump is under fire for a series of tweets telling four progressive congresswomen to “go back to” other countries, although three were born in the U.S. and all are American citizens.
Numerous Democratic figures, including presidential candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), have condemned the tweets as racist.
Franken, who was elected in 2008, resigned in 2018 amid sexual harassment allegations from eight women. He has remained active on the social media platform since leaving the Senate.