Sen. Al Franken tears up in speech paying tribute to Paul Wellstone

The emotion was clear in a speech Tuesday night on the U.S. Senate floor.

October 26, 2017 at 1:48AM

Wednesday's anniversary of Sen. Paul Wellstone's death was a day of emotion for Sen. Al Franken, who broke down talking about it on the Senate floor.

It happened Tuesday night as Franken gave a speech paying tribute to Wellstone and his wife, Sheila, killed with their daughter and five others in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minn., on Oct. 25, 2002.

The emotional moment came about nine minutes into the speech, when Franken was talking about how Wellstone "put ordinary Minnesotans ahead of politics, money and influence" and then recounting the last time they met in person, when they talked about Franken's ailing mother.

You can watch the speech below:

On Wednesday morning, Franken shared the video on Facebook and Twitter.

In a photo taken from C-SPAN video, Sen. Al Franken spoke Monday night about Paul Wellstone on the Senate floor and became emotional.
In a photo taken from C-SPAN video, Sen. Al Franken spoke Tuesday night about Paul Wellstone on the Senate floor and became emotional. (Vince Tuss/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writer

about the writer

Vince Tuss

Night home-page producer

Vince Tuss is a producer working on the StarTribune.com home page most evenings. Before that, he was a copy editor and a night police reporter.

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