CNN "Newsroom" - Interview with Amy Klobuchar
Interview
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With me now, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, endorsed Joe Biden after ending her own 2020 campaign last month.
Senator, thanks very much.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: Obviously there was a big campaign event in which you announced you were endorsing.
First of all, I want to ask how you and your family are doing?
KLOBUCHAR: Really well. My husband is recovered, got out of the hospital, and is doing really, really well. We had a nice Easter together with our family.
COOPER: I'm glad to hear that.
I want to play more of what former President Obama said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Our country's future hangs on this election. It won't be easy. The other side has a massive war chest. The other side has a propaganda network patterned in a way to cut through the noise and spin to remind us of what is real, what is important.
This crisis has reminded us that government matters. It's reminded us that good government matters. That facts and science matter, that the rule of law matters. That having leaders who are informed and honest and seek to bring people together rather than drive them apart, those kinds of leaders matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What do you make of how President Obama did this and what he said.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, I thought it was a beautiful video. I suggest that everybody watch it. What you see is he we need a confident person. You have the facts. Joe Biden help us manage him through us though the last economic crisis.
[14:49:58]
But you also have something personal. As I was listening to your discussion, I was thinking you didn't need tens of and to see that Barack Obama understands that Joe Biden that I love and that is someone who not only leads with confidence but also has the heart for it.
He talked about how his personal tragedies in his life where he lost family members, he lost his wife, he lost his kids. When that happened, how it made Joe Biden a stronger person and it makes him the president for our time. The kind of person we're going to need.
And I think, again, people in the -- in their own homes right now, struggling, are going to be able to watch that video and think with their heads about how we need competence and all they have to do is watch the president's press conference yesterday, President Trump, to see that we don't have that right now and what is happening in their own lives.
And also see President Obama's true warmth and love for Joe Biden. I don't think you need a big rally to see that.
COOPER: This is obviously hitting home for you in a very personal way. And I'm wondering how your own experience having that in your own home with your husband, the concerns for him, and then watching how things are playing out from a leadership standpoint from the White House, how you see and what you've heard from the White House over the last couple of weeks.
KLOBUCHAR: Exactly. And let me make clear. Nearly every American is feeling what I'm saying in some way. They have a friend or a family member. And what I learned, like so many people we had a long way on getting John's test results back, something like five and a half and six days. And he was in the hospital.
Secondly, I learned how following the rules mattered. He didn't go to the meeting with the other teachers because he felt a little sick. He didn't go to a Minnesota gathering we had, which could have exposed many people.
And the third thing that I learned is that feeling of not being able to be with the person in a -- the person that you love and hold their hand.
So I've been able to say to my colleagues on the Republican side, come on. This is going to happen to everyone. So we now need to improve that small business program, yes. But we also need the funding for tests and for the equipment and we need to get this testing out in such a big way.
That is the only way we're going to be able to bring our economy back, is we have the sophisticated and widespread testing that we need to give people the confidence that we can go back to work.
COOPER: Do you watch the coronavirus -- what are supposed to be the coronavirus task force briefings, which have been hijacked by the president for as long as he wants, before from scientists.
KLOBUCHAR: I've tried to watch them many times when we have the -- the scientists or Dr. Fauci speaking about the help and that is helpful. But you get so angry when the president turned it into himself. He turns it into a propaganda piece about himself when people are dying.
When Wisconsin voters are standing in line with masks and garbage bags over themselves, when you have got people all over this country wanting to stand at the bedside of their loved ones, and nurses and doctors going to work not knowing if they'll get the disease or not because they don't have the right equipment.
No, I don't want to see propaganda about him or him getting mad at the media or get mad at some small slight that he hated during the day. That is not what leadership is about.
I think Andrew Cuomo said it best when he said, if you're mad about what we're doing right now, call me, it is on me. He understood as so many of the governors do that the buck stops here. The buck stops here. That was Harry Truman's saying. And this president said the buck stops anywhere but here.
At the Republican convention, he is the one that said, I alone can fix this. Now let's fast forward, he's now saying he's back up to the governors. Then when the governors say, OK, we're going to join in regions, which makes sense, to figure out when we could start opening the economy again, what does he say then, no, you can't do that, I alone could fix this. Give me a break.
People understand what real leadership is and they saw it in the Barack Obama video released this morning about who I believe will be the next president, Joe Biden.
COOPER: Senator Amy Klobuchar, I appreciate your time today.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
COOPER: Glad your husband is go doing better. Thank you so much.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you so much, Anderson.
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