With days to go until the election, U.S. Sen. Al Franken on Wednesday said that a proposed travel ban to and from Ebola-stricken west African nations, should be extended to third-party countries for travelers not on direct flights, with special considerations for U.S. aid workers.
"I believe that we should have a travel ban on people who are coming from those third (party) countries who aren't U.S. citizens and who aren't medical personnel who are doing that work," Franken told reporters after a Minnesota DFL Get Out the Vote event. "I think that makes sense but that's insufficient because most of the people coming from those three countries are U.S. citizens and of course we want to incentivize people do to that work and we want them to be able to come back."
Franken applauded Gov. Mark Dayton's Ebola restrictions, which requires a 21-day home quarantine for health workers returning to Minnesota after treating afflicted patients.
Franken's opponent, Republican businessman Mike McFadden, who supports a travel ban, has repeatedly hammered Franken over Ebola, alleging a lack of leadership, and barraging voters with mailers and phone calls regarding Franken's early departure from a congressional Ebola hearing last month.
Yesterday the McFadden campaign launched a radio advertisement featuring audio from last Sunday's debate on WCCO TV when Franken struggled to say whether he supported a travel ban, finally saying that he had "nothing against it" but that he believed it would be insufficient because the majority of travelers from West Africa don't fly directly to the United States.
