[applause] good afternoon, everybody. Hello. So, on behalf of the center of Civic Engagement here at new england college, it is my pleasure to introduce you to president ial candidate and United States senator Amy Klobuchar. [applause] amy is the first woman to be elected to the United States senate in minnesotas history and she has a wellknown reputation of getting things done while she is there. A recent study has actually ranked her the most effective democratic senator and the last United States congress in the last United States congress. She is committed to improving the lives of the families in the heartland, ensuring that kids that grow up in Rural America can stay in Rural America and without spreading lies or spreading the blame, amys focus on getting things done and making sure families lives are improved every day. When she first came to congress, her number one ask was to be on the Senate Agricultural committee, and she understands that this country has to do more to support our beginning farmers, funding for rural energy programs, and conservation. She is fighting for issues we care about in New Hampshire. Health care, public schools, Mental Health and addiction. She understands the challenges and opportunities we face here and is taking action to make a real difference for our families. Best of all, we all know she can bring democrats up and down the ballot with her. She has won every Congressional District in minnesota in all three of her statewide elections, and last year, she won 42 of the Rural Counties that trump won in 2016. Top of the the ticket, minnesota democrats took back the house, flipped two congressional seats, and won every statewide election. [applause] and now, amy is fighting for every american. A warmse, help me give welcome to the senior senator from minnesota and candidate for the presidency of the United States, Amy Klobuchar. [applause] sen. Klobuchar what have you got here . Oh yes. There you go. Look at that. Thank you. Good time to be named the pilgrims. All right, well i am maybe going to put this over here. Thank you. I want to thank trevor so much. He is a fellow with our office, which he didnt add in the introduction but we appreciate his work while he is a student here, so thank you for that and where is wayne, who helped put this together . Thank you so much. Thank you for watching that whole debate two days ago. Scott merrick, right over here, the director. We are proud of his work, too. This is actually my first big event since the debate, so we were in new york yesterday. And did some things in new york, but it is great to be back in New Hampshire. We learned a little bit from the last time when after the debate i did three hours sleep and we came to New Hampshire and did 10 counties in 30 hours. That was a great plan, scott, but this time, we tried to do it a little differently and it is so fun to do all the great work you are doing, and i specially know with thanksgiving break coming up, teachers and students, thank you for coming on this rainy day. What a great crowd we have here. I love this state. Minnesota and New Hampshire have a lot in common. We both have a lot of lakes and forests. You maybe have mountains that we dont have, but we have one andly cool thing in common, that is we are only a handful of states that had the wisdom to send not one, but two women to the u. S. Senate. [applause] jeannie andar maggie are some of my best friends in the senate. Maggie and i compete for the New York Times many crossword puzzle every morning and when she gets a really good time, sometimes i see any mail from telling me she got it done in 28 seconds, before i actually see the puzzle , but she is an incredible person and it is very interesting. You have the only two women, the first two women in the history of the United States out of New Hampshire that served as both governor and senator. Jean, who i think you know is up for election this time, and i go way back. I got to know her when she was campaigning nationally for various president ial candidate and we have stayed at their house on vacation with their family, but i actually one of my most fond memories of gene is i was sitting next to her when she first got the senate and she said to me we were talking about the old desks and senator brown just wrote a book, and i have just started reading it about his desk in the senate. It is called desk 88 and it is about the people who have had that desk. I told jean the story about how i requested uber humphries desk. She said how do you know whos desk it is . I said they sign it. I asked for it and in a few months, they all look alike. Im all excited, i open it up, and it says gordon humphrey, from New Hampshire. They had given me the wrong desk but even by that time in the senate, island you pick your battles. I learned you pick your battles. I guess ill read up on gordon humphrey, and i was telling her that story and she said let me look at it. I opened up the desk and what i didnt know when the new congress had arrived, concluded her, they had changed out my desk and i then and still have Hubert Humphreys desk, which is a great thing. He was an incredible happy warrior. I have his picture as a reminder to me and maybe all of you that no matter how hard things get, as they were this week with that impeachment hearing and thinking of those Public Servants that fiona hill yesterday, my gosh. I read somewhere this week that strong Women Leadership that you could see on display with fiona hill as well as ambassador ambassador, whom i personally know, it was their words and colonel vindman who told the story of how their immigrant dad came over and he was talking to his dad and said dont worry, this is a country where it is ok to tell the truth. So through all of this this week him and i will get to this in a minute, it is really important to remember there is a lot of good people that are standing up for america, including those ones who testified this week. What my friend john mccain always used to say. There is nothing more liberating than a cause greater than yourself. That is what they did this week when they testified. Great tot is also remember that there are a whole lot of citizens out there who, when you look in this next election and put it in this context, that for them, this election yes, it is an economic check and im sure will have good discussions about that, and policies like aesop us is alsohis week, but it a patriotism check. It is a values check on this president going into the election. If you look at the people who had previously voted for donald and voted for the new governor of kentucky, so that Mitch Mcconnell now has a democratic governor, or you look at what happened in virginia, where we again put up this lane of very diverse candidates and switched the house and senate, something is going on. So my message to you right here from the start is very profound. We cant screw this up. We cant, because we have this opportunity to put together this team across the country that believes truly in their hearts that what unites us is bigger than what divides us, a group of people that is bigger than donald trump, that is bigger than any of those people that show up at his rallies that yell mean things. It is much bigger than that. It really gets to the heart of america, and if we want to move on these big, big ticket items like Immigration Reform and Climate Change, and finally doing something about College Affordability since we are at this great college, and do something when it comes to health care and bringing the by adown, we cannot eke victory at 4 00 in the morning with one state, even if it is. New hampshire. We cant do that. We have to win big across the country so people are going to be able to sit across from each other at a thanksgiving table again and talk, and not just get mad at each other, because this president has really fueled these divides. He does it all the time. He goes after immigrants, treats them like political ponds. Pawns. He goes after people of color, people who dont agree with him. He makes minced meat of our democracy and allows others to make minced meat of our democracy. Patriotism at its core, this state knows a lot about that. You produce a lot of incredible veterans through the years. Youve produced ambassadors. Incredibleven us political leaders, including the ones you have in congress right now, the have always seen their roles as a little bigger than what they had to do for their own neighborhood. Theyve seen a bigger neighborhood that includes our country and includes our world, and i think that is on display right now. I was thinking about this the when we talked about how fiona hill, she was making this very clear that this whole theory that ukraine was somehow trying to interfere with our ction wasnt just wrong we know the facts are there, the fbi director and President Trumps Friend National security people said russia did it. They said it under of, everyone of them has said this. Ive been there at the hearings. We know it was wrong, but what she said yesterday is important. It is not just wrong. They are furthering a hoax, something russia wanted us to believe and still wants us to believe that is not true. That gets to the patriotism piece. As you think about the fact that thousands of people from New Hampshire have died fighting for democracy. Hundreds of thousands of americans have died fighting for democracy on battlefields. Four little innocent girls died at the height of the Civil Rights Movement at a church in birmingham, alabama. The just commemorated anniversary of that bombing. Four girls died because they wouldnt extend the rights of democracy. Been about ays more Perfect Union. In never was a Perfect Union from the beginning. That is why they said we strive for a more Perfect Union. We cannot afford to go backwards. Cap its core, and when we get into all the details of the issues you know are important and are so good at in New Hampshire, my favorite New Hampshire story was this 11yearold boy named quinn who i met on Easter Sunday at a church in walpole, who came up to me during the service no, will talk later, when. Andt him at the service other candidates events. One of the questions he asked, when the mueller testimony was going on, do you think it would be better for mueller to testify in the house for senate first and should it be for the intelligence or judiciary committees . I am aware of the detailed knowledge of New Hampshire voters, but we cannot forget what this is about. Reminded when we did an event similar to this in portland and i lead with a whole economic point about what we needed to do economically to help the town and help your and they had some closures up there and they heard a lot of that and we started doing questions and it went off the rails in a good way. It was about a month ago. The questions were how does this impeachment proceeding work . What should we do . Why does it happen in the house first . It was one of those moments where a lot of these people have fallen on hard times, some of them are out of work or retired, but they still care so much about this. They were trying to figure it out and if you dont leave me, one said to the other it is kind of like the law and order tv show. The first half, they gather the evidence and the second half is the court. I said ok, but it is not criminal, but it is the way you think about it. I want us to remember this moment in time, and as i mentioned, the only way we are going to get all this stuff done is if we win big. Lets say we win big, what do we want to do . Ive put out a 100 day plan. I think it is really important, given what this president has done, that we immediately switch over to another way of thinking as citizens. When you think about the first 100day plan for an american president , it was fdrs. We were in the middle of any economic crisis, but he also understood the trust crisis we were in, because people didnt trust their leaders, they didnt trust business or their government leaders. That is why he thought it was so important to shake things up right away. If you have time, you should look up at our website. We have found over 100 things i think it is 130 what, tommy . Thats really weird that you know the exact number. That we can do in the first 100 days. Some of it is propose legislation, which i have committed to do. Some of it i have committed to strongly get done in the first year, but a lot of the things are things we can do without congress. I love congress and i am going to work with congress better, certainly than this president and i will have a unique way of working with congress because i have been able to work across the aisle passing over 100 bills myself as lead democrat, but we have to remember there are things we can get done right away, and that includes the issue of Climate Change. Existential crisis of our time. This president has not only not helped us, he has gone backwards on it. California was trying to get the gas mileage standards that actually president obama had proposed and all the Car Companies thought we were going to do. A bunch of those Car Companies working with california including forward to get that done, they supported it, and the Trump Administration literally stopped the state from doing what some of the Car Companies wanted to do and worse. Antitrust violations for working with california to get this done. What can we do without congress . Number one thing on Climate Change we can do without congress is get ourselves back into the international Climate Change agreement. [applause] when theuchar president took us out of the agreement, there were only two countries not in it and that was nicaragua and syria. Now they are both in the agreement. We are the only ones. The clean power rule, something that was very well negotiated over the years during the Obama Administration ended up on the cutting room floor in the Trump Administration comes in. We can bring that back. The gas mileage standards, a president can do that herself i keep doing this, one of my messages from the debate is we have to think of things differently. When i suggested we play the game what is your favorite women president . Im kidding. It is important people envision this differently. Gas mileage standards and tweaking legislation to put a carbon price out there. I think one of the things that has happened is people start thinking this is going to be expensive, and a carbon price will help us pay for any of the economic dislocations that i think we will see. There will be some forms of energy phasing out and others coming in. I have suggested incentives for manufacturing of any kind and all other types of jobs for the areas we will see the job changes as well as making sure people can afford energy and we can do this. We just have to be really smart about how we do it. I was saying the other night that i think of things with my head and also my heart. This is important because my family came from northern minnesota and we have iron ore mines out there, which i have been working very hard to make sure we keep going and that makes steel, right . Rights still going strong now, but at one point when they were closing down, there was a last one tot said leave, turn off the lights . Now, duluth is thriving because of tourism and the port, some because of unique manufacturing, like those cutting boards, epicurean, things like they make jets. They make all kinds of things, and the town was able to adapt. It is not a huge town, but they are able to do it. Thats why i have helped when hope when i see these things and believe we can make this work with Climate Change and the kind of changes we will see. The second big challenge we have his health care. Have you seen the debates, a few things on that. I personally believe the best way to get our premiums down is with a nonprofit public option. That is something president obama wanted to do from the beginning. It creates competition with insurance and is estimated that 13 Million People would see the rates go down. Is axample with my plan family of four making 100,000 would see their premiums go down by 50 . I think when we look at that, weve got to look at the numbers and how we get there and make sure we do not harm. Right now, the Affordable Care act according to the polls is 10 points more popular than donald trump. Reason people voted in kentucky because of that republican governor having aligned himself against the Affordable Care act and medicaid and those kinds of things. It made a big difference when our candidate was campaigning on the protections you get with the Affordable Care act. Thrashing and dismantling the Affordable Care act is a bad idea. Secondly, pharmaceutical prices have skyrocketed. Common drugs like insulin and the epipen from under what happened with that . That was personal for me because my daughter has an allergy to certain nuts and carries one with her everywhere. I had a sense that you never haveone epipen because you have one at school and one at home and one with her, and then they get old and they lose one. It is really a whole thing. And those skyrocketed, i personally took that on along with another number of parents. I was in the u. S. Senate, put me in a good position to do it, but we waged a Public Relations and social media campaign, and they had to bring that down with coupons and other things, but not every parent is going to be able to do that for every drug and thats why i favor the competition that you get when you bring in less expensive drugs from other countries. That would make a huge difference. In my state, we can see fro cana we can see canada from our porch, so we prices from their. As well as unleashing the power of seniors to negotiate under medicare. That would make a big difference. [applause] sen. Klobuchar we have other Health Care Issues that maybe we can get to in the q and a. I think it is more important that we be focusing on some of these other things if you want to look to the future. Dental health, one in five american struggle with until health sometime in their life one in fiveh american struggle with Mental Health sometime in their life. That would be a good discussion for our country to have. Addiction, my dad struggled with our holism my whole life. Alcoholism my whole life. When he was given the choice treatment or jail, he took treatment and it changed his life. Once then, he has been sober after struggling with treatment when it didnt work. Tough loveffect of and how it changed his and our lives. 91 and in assisted living. He said to me when his group was visiting, it is hard to get a drink around here anyway. His life changed and other people should have the same right to be pursued by grace. College, i believe we should be putting our money into the futures of our kids and we should be focusing on people who need it the most. That includes helping kids by doubling pell grants. 51 of the kids at this college are on pell grants. They are actually grants. Right now, and this is for the students that are listening and their families, it is set at 6,000 a year. Imagine the difference if we doubled it to 12,000 a year. That would make a big difference, and what if we took the income level i can see you back their liking that. What if we took the income level which is now set at 50,000 a year and put it at 100,000 a year . That would expand it to allow more families to use those grants and use those grants at qualified institutions, whether they be public or private. [applause] sen. Klobuchar i am picking that plan because i think it helps get the money where it should go to. Historically black colleges and universities, to colleges like this. It helps the students where they are and i think it would make the most sense. I also think we have the Fastest Growing jobs right now. Our one and twoyear degrees, that is why i favor making Community College degrees free, but we also know there will be a huge amount of jobs out there for kids that get the fouryear degrees and beyond. We have to look at the areas where we need workers right now, so we are not going to have a shortage of ceos. We are going to have a shortage of plumbers in this country. We are going to have 74,000 openings for electricians. We are going to have over one million openings for Home Health Care workers, and we are going to have a lot of openings for the students here in those areas of technology and science and the more we and so can create incentives for kids to use their fouryear degrees to get into areas we know the jobs are, the better off we are going to be and that is why i would tie the loan forgiveness for people who go into Public Service the first thing i would do is get rid of betsy because she has really messed up this program for the loan payment, this tenyear program. You could expand this program to include these in demand jobs. Be everyone else, you would able to reduce the Interest Rate for loan payments. Multimillionaires can refinance their yachts, students should be up to refinance their loads. [applause] sen. Klobuchar that is my plan, and i realize there are other plans out there worth considering. I am very concerned about free college for all. As you know, that is not free college for all. It is focused on the public schools, which my plan would cover in a big way, but it also would mean that wealthy kids would get free college too. Something like 10 of the and Something Like 10 of those kids at public colleges are from families that make over 200,000 a year. So it is not actually a small percentage, and it sounds good on a Bumper Sticker, but im not for something just because it looks good on a Bumper Sticker and i am not going to throw in a free car. Which i know is not a popular thing to say with students, but i think students are smart and i give them the credibility to see through this. Because we have to make sure we are not putting more debt on the shoulders of our kids. Because thats what were doing right now. The world we are leaving our kids right now is a world that the climate is changing and it is the students of this country, this generation, thank god is standing up and saying no, we will not take this. It is the students of this country that will inherit the ever escalating that President Trump is letting get worse and basis,n a daily including with his tax bill, which added over a trillion dollars to the debt. I did not vote for it, i was not close to voting for it, when he went to tell his wealthy friends that they got much richer i think i told where his heart is and what happened with the tax bill. So the debt, the climate, gun safety, what we are seeing with gun violence and we just saw again at another high school. Thats whats happening right now. I guess i will end with this, because i think one of the most Amazing Things right now is the way young people are standing up like never before. For me, it started the day after the inauguration. And by the way, when i first started campaigning, i remember going to the university of minnesota with a big blown up check of student loan Interest Rates and how much it was. There has been a marked change over the last decade with student involvement. That its not just politicians saying we have to get young people, its young people leading the way. Young people that led the way to get the Political Movement to get gay marriage. It was young people. It was young people that led the way when barack obama and everyone was saying how could someone with a name we had never heard of be the president , it was young people. I like weird names for president , i think its a good thing. It was young people, and it was these causes of Climate Change, gun safety, and College Affordability where young people are leading the way. You saw it in the midterm elections, where they voted at higher levels than they have before. But most significantly, you also saw it after parkland, where those kids stood up in florida and then those kids motivated other kids and they started talking to their dads and their grandpa and that led to the election of some incredible new members of congress. Those members of congress are the ones that pass universal background checks and all of those bills sitting in a stack on Mitch Mcconnells desk. So i really go around to where i started, which is, if we want to get these things done, we cannot just win by a little, we have to win big. We have to be the kind of country where we can have civil know thatnts, but what unites us is bigger than what divides us. I will end since im at this college, reminding us of where we started from, the day after the inauguration we had millions of people march all over this country peacefully, in record numbers that we had never seen before. The day after that, 6000 women signed up to run for office. On day nine, when the antimuslim order came out, that refugee ban, people showed up spontaneously at airports, who does that on a saturday night . But people did that. Day 100, the march for science, what do we want . Science. When do we want it . After peerreview. When the republicans were trying to repeal the Affordable Care act, we were joined by all democrats as well as senator mccain and other republicans and and we won that effort. You go to the following summer, where the first glimmers of hope since Donald Trumps election and into the fall, my personal favorite was the guy from new he hopedo had said that the women at the womens march would be home in time for dinner, he was defeated by an africanamerican woman. You go to parkland, the young people and what happened there where they said no, we will not take it, and they marched and they kept going into that last Congressional Election where we literally took the house of representatives and turned it into the peoples house again. Then we had what happened these last few weeks. Is an exciting thing to be a part of because we are literally reclaiming our democracy right in front of our eyes. So anyone who thinks this is a time to stay home because youre mad about Donald Trumps tweets, dont do that. You can be a part of something much bigger. For those who are committed to the campaign, thank you. For those of you who are just thinking about it because you live in New Hampshire and is considered a positive when someone comes up to you and says you are now in my top three. If you are one of those people, commit today. Commit today. Let me tell you why. We are on the rise. We are on the rise. Since the debate before then, we raised money in record numbers, 2 Million Dollars, 2. 1 Million Dollars in six days online from regular people. We have gone up in the polls, doubled there, im now in five, a number of these polls nationally, six, thank you. [laughter] see what i mean . In iowa im five, so there. But we are going up. This is an electorate where i think depending on where you are, 60 of the people have not made a decision, because they want to make sure about what i said at the beginning, that we dont screw this up, that we have someone at the top of the ticket who can win. The way i look at it is this. We have this incredibly inspired base of people that started marching the day after the inauguration and they have organized and voted in record levels ever since. But we have to bring in those people who stayed home, we have to bring in those who voted for donald trump, 10 of the people who voted for President Trump voted for barack obama. Those people are out there. They are the people like the guy in a closed down factory that i met who showed me a coat rack with the 18 uniforms of the people that used to work there that got messed up because of the trade war and other decisions with oil waivers. He said look, these are my friends, im the last worker working here because my job is to maintain the equipment. But i kept the uniforms on this coat rack. They said derek and salvador and he says ive kept these names because maybe they can come back. Or was this other guy in my state, and this was a year and a half ago who told me after the media left, he said we made a mistake. I thought he meant something i did, but he was talking about himself as we. He said we made a mistake, i was mad and we voted for donald trump. And then he said and then i saw that right after that inauguration, the cia wall, when trump stood in front of the wall, probably not the first thing on your mind, but it was on his, with all of the stars of the anonymous patriots who died in their line of duty, and he gave a political speech in front of that wall. Then he said i was a boy scout, and when he gave a boy scout speech, another political speech, to a bunch of young people, he said that was it. He started to cry and said im never doing that again. Never. Then there was the guy in New Hampshire, in a line, it was an event were some reason everybody was wearing these stickers. Voter. Upreme court m a one of them says Climate Change voter, one said. For a joke i said you are not wearing a sticker, and he said because i voted for donald trump. I was a Donald Trump Voter but they dont know. Because he knew some of the people there. He said dont tell them and i said i wont. And he says but im not doing it again. I want us to remember its not just about the campaign. Its about how we are going to govern, about looking people in the eye and talk about why he did and why he wont do it this time. Thats why im running for president and why i ask for your support. Thank you. [applause] very good. Ok, ok. Sen. Klobuchar where is jordan . Jordan . Somewhere . You are hiding. Thats why we do cards. Do you want to ask you question yourself or do you want me to read it . [indiscernible] sen. Klobuchar now i see why you didnt want to ask because theres a big microphone. Your question was about mental and as i explained, one of the reasons it is so personal for me is because i saw my dad struggle with alcoholism. Another reason its personal is actually there was a senator from minnesota named Paul Wellstone who took this on. His buttons were green, thats one of the reasons mine are. He tragically died in a plane crash way too young. His brother had schizophrenia. He always talked about how the house was dark, his brothers name is stephen, their house was dark because they did not want to tell anyone about it. After a while, they realized it was stopping them from getting help for their son and brother. They finally did. Ive met pauls brother a few times and it changed his life. When he got to the senate, he started working with senator kennedy and with a republican congressman who used to be from my state named jim ramstad on Mental Health parity. That is something Patrick Kennedy has taken on. Its the idea that if youre going to have Insurance Coverage for physical illness, it should also cover Mental Illness. That law passed, but there has still been problems with implementing it and getting the rules. I know as president in pauls , i will get this done. I took on eating disorders, this is an interesting and sad fact, its the number one cause of death of any Mental Illness for women, eating disorders. So that was one that was not covered at all. I got three women on the bill with me, two republicans and me and another democrat, it had been sitting there for 20 years and we got the bill passed a few years ago. That has made a big difference because it meant that residential eating Disorder Treatment can be covered. That is the first thing. That mostly helps for people with insurance, the more that we can do to get this covered, the better off we will be. The second thing we need to do is make sure there are enough Public Health beds. There are not in this country. We went smartly from state hospitals to communitybased Mental Health care, but we did not figure out what to do with more severe cases and there are a lot of severe cases right now. If you dont believe me, theres been a 30 increase in suicides in the United States of america in 15 years, 30 increase. So when you read these stories and you hear about someone from school or someone you know, this is really happening now. Some of it is that people are isolated, they are in their phones looking down. Some of it is because they are feeling that there is no one there for them. So all this means we have to step back and look at what is going on. Its especially high with youth, lgtbq youth, and especially high with people in rural areas, and especially high with veterans, there has been some horrific lots in in v. A. Parking recent years. The answer is prevention, having counselors and school, Health Care Available in health care deserts, rural areas where its harder to get places. The second thing is making sure that when people are at a point where they can work again, making sure that we as a society understand that they should be in the work and we should figure out a way to get them jobs especially in states like yours and mine that have low unemployment rates. We are in a better place to do that. There are things about hospitals and waivers we can do to make it better, that would be a big part of it. I think part of this is going to be back to what i was talking about before, changing the towns tone of our politics and our civic culture so we can talk to each other and look at these things again. This president has not helped on that front. When i was in a small town in iowa there was a School Counselor there. She said during that day she had four kids visit her that had thoughts of suicide, in one day. She said they were all immigrant kids and they were all afraid their parents would be deported every day and they could not handle it anymore. They understandably thought their whole life was going away. Their parents were working at a factory nearby. This kind of discord and actual fear is not just made up in peoples heads, its real. If they are afraid they will be bullied or their parents will be taken away from them or they will be taken away and their whole life will be taken away, to bringing i get back some sanity into our policies, domestic and foreign, and bringing back some consistency and getting to a point where you are not afraid to turn on the tv and see the president. Some people are actually afraid for good reason that what he says will destroy their lives. I think its going to be all of our country working together, but it has to start from the top when we talk about how were are going to make this a better place to live. All right . Ok, next. Here we go. Its another Mental Illness, which we did. Come back, trevor. I think we answered that one. Ok. Lets see. College and student loan debt. Talked i pretty much about that, but i just want people to know that i take this very seriously. My background,w i am the granddaughter of an iron ore miner who cannot graduate from high school or middle school because parents were sick and he had to work to support nine brothers and sisters. He went to work as a teamster, there are some teamsters here. That was his first job. He pulled a wagon. He was 14, 15, and he went to work in the mines for his whole life. He saved money in the basement and in a coffee can to send my dad to college, he went to a twoyear Community College and got a degree from the university of minnesota and did not have debt. My mother grew up in milwaukee, she came to minnesota this is all a lot of union stories, because it helped her a lot. She was a part of the teachers union, she taught second grade until she was 70 years old. At some point in the middle, my parents got divorced and she went back to teaching. Because of the union she had a livable wage and it helped her support our family at that time. For all of that time she did not have loans. I went to school with some loans, but i met my husband and he had a lot of loans but i married him anyway, he had 60,000 of loans. That doesnt seem like much to some students, he grew up in a trailer home with five brothers, his parents were devoted to education but they had six kids. So i kind of will defy some people who are running for president , not everybody has the story of the family that did not come from a lot of money, thats why education is important to me. I want to be careful about how we do this, so that we dont put more debt on your shoulders and so that we are connecting our Education System to the jobs that we have out there. For those jobs that dont pay enough but we need workers, say Home Health Care workers, we have to make sure they have a livable wage. Thats why i favor raising the minimum wage. We have to make sure that there is a safety net for childcare and workfamily leave, and for retirement. For a lot of young people, they are not going to work at places that automatically have a 401 k or a pension. Actually, we just introduced a bill, a senator from delaware and i, to have savings accounts and its an interesting idea for smaller employers and there is some funding for this. I show how im going to pay for everything i do and this would be . 50 an hour extra that goes into a savings account and you could do it for parttime jobs, you can do for even shortterm jobs and you could take it with you. But its kept in a savings account. One interesting thing about it, 500 you can take out every year for emergency expenses. Up to a lifetime it would give you about 600,000, which would help to supplement Social Security and those kinds of things. So not enough people are talking about retirement. You all know we are having a population, which is a great thing, because people are living longer, but that means we should be planning for workers to help people when they are growing up. We were at a center in New Hampshire and we should be planning for savings for seniors. If we dont do that, the young people out there are going to get screwed. I keep trying to make clear that we just cannot appeal to people in this Campaign Based on their now. We have to be thinking ahead. Theres an ojibway old saying, that great leaders make a decision for this generation but also seven generations from now. Our problem in this country right now is that we have a president who cant keep his decision for seven minutes from now, and we need to think for the longterm. Ok, or maybe a tweet from now. Ok, why are you the candidate that can defeat President Trump, this is from lee from mount vernon. Where are you . There you are. I dont know why im giving you the microphone. [laughter] im a new resident in New Hampshire, i changed party affiliation, im a republican identifying as a democrat. [indiscernible] [applause] my biggest concern is that left to its own devices, and devices, is going to devices, hes going to win. And when i look at the slate of candidates, i am concerned, so why can you win . Sen. Klobuchar first of all, we need to have someone that actually can win, thats the numberone thing. You have to look at the track records of the candidates who are running. When you look at my track record i would submit its the most interesting and positive. If you run any kind of predictable line for being able to bring in those folks. I would actually suggest you call anyone you know from my state, they wont all agree with me and not everyone will have voted for you, but they would tell you that i am fair and i have respect from the people in my state, thats why i have one record numbers time and again, including against a sitting congressman when i ran for u. S. Senate. I have done that by going not just where it is comfortable, but by going where it is uncomfortable. Ive gone to rural areas, and spent a lot of time there. I was as was noted by trevor, i have won 42 counties that donald trump won. So i would start with that. The second thing i have done is won big in suburban areas, when running, oured party was not doing well in suburban areas. I remember when i was first running for the d. A. Job, i went to a suburban high school which had traditionally been republican and i thought here i am, at the democratic meeting i was to attend, there were six guys who looked kinda sad and were sitting in a room. And i said im here. And they said amy, this is the winter golf club, the democrats are around the corner. I went around the corner and there were 250 democrats, i am like wow. Thats how things change. Many were moderate republicans who voted for one of our former governors, governor carlson, they were those republicans. But they were starting to get sick, even back then, they were starting to get tired of the rhetoric and pushing people out the Republican Party just because they did not agree with them on certain issues. I think youve seen that now reach a pinnacle with President Trump. So when i look at my record, i am somebody was always brought those voters with me. I have done it time and time again. In my state, northern minnesota has steelworkers, teamsters, and kind of like it in sylvania, kind of like a pennsylvania, western pennsylvania type voting group. The iowa border and the north and south dakota border is very rural. And in the middle, the rural district of michelle bachmann. I have won every one of those republican districts three times in a row now, Congressional Districts. They are whole Congressional Districts. [applause] and i have done it by getting there. In this last election, when i lead the ticket, for the third time we flipped the Republican House democratic, and we also flipped to suburban congressional seats. Flipped two of the suburban suburban suburban congressional seats. What does it mean . We have had some smart fiscal policy in our state. One of my favorite memories, a few years ago i was in the senate at that year cnbc vote voted our state the best state to do business in. I went up to ted cruz and i said, dont know if you saw this and so we have just brought some sanity back to our government and cohesiveness to our state. I think that way of being is important if you want to bring these people in. And if you want to win in those states that donald trump one, test donald trump donald trump won. Pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, iowa, ohio, i would target those as well as ofalmost won my state minnesota. When i have been in those states, i have said im going to build a blue wall around those states and make donald trump pay for it. [applause] that is the plan. That is really the hardcore. Obviously, New Hampshire, donald trump did not win New Hampshire, maggie was on the ballot and did a great job organizing people and actually hillary had a healthy margin of victory compared to a state like mine, honestly. Well, i know. That is a healthy margin of victory percentagewise, but it was a healthy margin of victory in minnesota, which was our smallest victory. Where do you work again . He will never say. He just shows up. He is just in the front row. And he corrects me. Its really good, though. But you are right, you are right. [inaudible] senator klobuchar i have now established that you are not a republican tractor. This is good. Good. We are all good. He and i had a lot of discussion. Ok, i was wrong, and you were right. You are right. Thank you. [inaudible] senator klobuchar rather than you and me debating. Next. The republican platform is to overturn roe v. Wade. I never heard you say anything about abortion rights, planned senator klobuchar ok. I think probably because i just talked about it on the debate stage. I made a big point of it. I try to talk about it whenever i can. Maybe there was going to be a question, so i do talk about it is incredibly do talk about it. It is incredibly important in the state and Jeanne Shaheen has reminded me every day. I have always been prochoice. I would codify roe v. Wade as president. I am someone who would actually fund planned parenthood. And as i did and as i pointed out on the debate stage, over 90 of americans support contraception and funding for contraception. Over 70 support roe v. Ade. What the president has done, we were in georgia for that debate, is completely at odds with where the vast majority of American People are. When he was running for president , he actually said that he would, it was in an interview with chris matthews, and he implied he thought women should go to jail for exercising the right to choose. Then they dialed it back later that day and said, no, doctors should go to jail. Well, that is what they have done with some of these laws. Alabama is a 99 year sentence. 99 year sentence. And georgia, they are just, there are laws meant to make it so there is no right to choose. Took to get back to the question shot so to get back to the question, this is a major deciding issue, including for moderate republicans and independents. Because when you look at the judges he has put on the court, the kind of laws he is leading to have passed, they are inimical to most past where most americans stand. I would also reverse the gag rule, domestic and global. I am someone, while i have these strong views and work with jean all the time since she is one of the leaders in the senate on this issue, i have also been a leader of the adoption caucus. These two things are inimical, they are not against each other in any way. And this administration, this is what is weird, a lot of focus is on international adoption. They have done nothing to make this easier on families who want to adopt kids. And that is something i would also take on at the same time. That is where i am. I hope that answers it. Take one more of these. We talked about Climate Change, im going to try to get something else. Lets see. What is your vision to help americans . I am going to go through these in rapid order. To allow americans to live independently. I think a lot of this is housing, making sure we have housing credits, making sure we have incentives for people that want to live in their homes thats ok which we actually havent done enough of. There is more than more that we can do there. In addition to rejoining the paris accord, what more radical lans do you have to combat Climate Change . That is an interesting word. Ok. As i said, we have to put a price on carbon. I i just dont want to make you stand here with this thing. We could put a price on carbon. To think that would make a big difference. Is that your question . Ok. But we can put a price on carbon, and we can do that three ways. We can do that with a tax. We can do it with cap and trade, which we passed once in the house of representatives. Or we can do it with a renewable electricity standard. And i would work with congress on what it the best way to do it. Yes . He talked about an issue that resonated, tom steyer came to our town a few months ago and talked about an issue that resonated with me for a long ime. I think it is a bipartisan issue, the issue of public funded elections and the corruption of our election process and returning the government for the people and by the people. Citizens united is a part of that, but it goes beyond that. Our election process has turned into a fouryear election process, which is exhausting and nonproductive. You look at countries where it is a sixweek maximum like england. Maybe that is the other extreme. But politics has turned into a big money reality show. Senator klobuchar ok, very good. Im trying to take a deep breath. Because he has a lot of money that i wish i had to pay for my tv ads, and he has done some great work on Climate Change. But i would start with that. I dont think he should be able we should be able to have billionaires have an unfair advantage in this election. Everyone has the right to run, but the issue is, you want to have the best candidate that can wane and beat donald trump. So when i look at this, i dont think people say, donald trump is a multimillionaire, i want someone richer that can beat him. Whoever the candidate is, we are going to get the funding to more than match donald trump. Because you have seen that with a number of races all across the country, because there are so many people interested in helping. I would prefer public finance, which i think he supports as well. Public finance would be a olution. It is not a solution we have right now. In my state, it works really well and we should expand it in a much bigger way on the federal level, for things like senate races and house races. I think it would make a difference. Secondly, getting rid of all this Voter Suppression would be the best thing we could ever do. I have long led the bell to register every kid when they urn 18, to vote. When you get at some of the bad things that have happened in New Hampshire and across the country, that would add 20 Million People to the voter roll, legally registered. Because when i was just down in georgia, corey and pete and i sat there and did texts to voters. They are literally contacting one Million People who are going to be purged off the voter rolls because they just havent voted in the last few elections. Think about how outrageous that is. I have a bill to change that as well. Gerrymandering is very unfair. Both New Hampshire and my state have high voter turnouts, but you have to make it easier and easier for people to vote, not harder for them to vote. Getting the money out of politics is not just about public finance, it is also about citizens united. I feel this in my heart, perhaps you heard me on the debate stage say that one time i was so hard up raising money that i raised 17,000 from an exboyfriend, true story. I called everyone that i knew in my life because no one would call me back nationally because they couldnt pronounce my name and i really did that, which i think as far as i know is still an alltime senate record. Im not going to reveal that. One way i cap good relations with the exboyfriend is not revealing such a thing. And someone on the plane did say, you got that from 17 exboyfriends . And i said, it wasnt that many. One of them did quite well. Anyway, the point of the story is that that outside money has been incredibly negative for our politics. It means candidates cant control their own message. It means that you are not responsible for all those mean things that are run. So that is one thing we should do. And if we win big, picture this, and really conservative districts in minnesota, one that a democrat won, she was running ads of people standing on bales of hay trying to talk, and they couldnt talk, and the message was that outside interests are blocking your ability to talk. She ran the ad for a district long held by republicans, and she one. And she won. We have to get out of our democratic shell and reach out and a libertarian way to people when it comes to outside money, outside pharma money, oil money, all the things influencing our politics. We have two pharmaceutical lobbyists for every member of commerce every member of congress. So that is a piece of it. The other thing is just getting people to want to believe again in our politics. Every single day, donald trump tries to make you hate government. He does. We have to call him on it. He is trying to make you not vote and just hate everyone, and he is trying to bring in, which is what the impeachment proceeding is about, he is actually trying to get foreign powers to influence our election, give him dirt on a political opponent, what we now know russia has done. This isnt madeup stuff. Just watch fiona hills testimony. Watch ambassador jovanovich. This is happening in real time. And sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. That is where we are. I think our citizens have always been a mavericky group, and what theyve and when they figure out what he is doing, and many have now, there went to stand up and say, this is my country, it is not it yours and you are not going to ruin it for us. O sign up with us. We are going up, we are positive, and we are going to win this thing, but only with all of you, all of you at our side. That is the only way i am going to win. Sign up at Amy KlobucharAmy Klobuchar. Com. Talk to scott, our great director, and lets win this. Hank you, everybody. [applause] look right here. 1, 2, 3. Great. Ok, thank you. Again, that is big, that is a big group. Thank you, carol. Thank you for your service. It has been an amazing experience. So thanks again. Hank you, so much. Thank you so much, thank you for talking to us. You should be in a political ad with the baby. Thank you. I heard a lot of shutter clicks. Ri, thank you. All right, thank you. That is really important. The original budget bill. I appreciate all that you do. Thank you. Good to see you. Senator, i dont want to throw my vote away. I think you are the one. Well, thank you, that means so much. Thank you. Ok, thank you. Thank you. Hi, there. How are you . I was doing a little wave. Im a former, very successful budget manager. And i was very successful because i had women and successful people, with successful backgrounds and so forth. It was great. Im a strong believer. That is what is wrong with the Republican Party right now. You bet. You are a very smart lady, by the way, very smart. Hi, roger. How are you . I was very impressed. Could i have a picture and put my arm around you . Thank you. Very good. Do you live here in town . Im here on behalf of a nonprofit. So you have a questionnaire . Yes. Fantastic. Ok, great. If you get this to us by september 6, we will put it out with the rest of the candidates. Ok, that would be great. Ok. We will make sure we get it done. I appreciate it. All the best. How are you . I am here from ohio. We are having a climate strike in hillsboro on the 9th. Very good. Now they are in first grade and preschool. Changes in sea level, and tourism is down. The other thing that matters is mentioning that Homeowners Insurance has come up so much. So it is an economic thing on the other. A lot of regular people get worried about that. That is what i said, you are not going to get the support you need. I liked what you said about abortion and planned arenthood. Women need safe, affordable birth control. Exactly. Amy, thank you for running, thank you for doing this. We all appreciate it so much. We really do. This is my daughter. Hi, how are you . Hi, how are you . You were great up on stage. Auto oh, thank you. Ok, we are ready. Ith your help. Im all good. Thank you, though. You were great today. Thank you. This is my daughter. All right. All right, thank you. Nice to meet you. Good to see you. Thanks very much. Good luck. Thank you. I hope you can reach out to the democrats. Ok, thank you. Hi there. Thank you. Thank you. Get the blue wall. Yeah, we will. I was so glad you talked about farmers. That is where this trade war and the other things are really urting people. We do them in a combo. They are our shy people that ont want to stand up. Im from new york. Very good. He is a trump supporter, so we have a lot of work to do. Ok. Let me know if i should all. I would love to have your support. Thank you. You are a dynamic speaker. You covered everything. Thank you. I loved your speech. Thank you. How old are you . 13. If only you could vote. But you could work, you can volunteer. Ok, that would be good. Good luck. Hi there, how are you . Your red shirts match. A good friend of mine. A leader in Climate Change. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you. Ok. Ok, thank you. Hi. Thank you for coming today. Yeah, i had a great time. N a rainy day. Thank you. How are you . I fluent all the way from san diego for this i flew in all the way from san diego for this. Senator klobuchar from where . San diego. Senator klobuchar we would like to make it work. We know there is an impeachment hearing. Senator klobuchar ok, well there is a precedent. Good to see you. Thank you. I am hoping it gets done even before i get in there. It is really a race. Mitch mcconnell is stopping it because of my bill closing the gun show loophole, it says domestic abusers cant have irearms. Ok, thank you. How are you . Are you doing ok . Ok. I am a friend of tim yans. Senator klobuchar he was great. We sit next to each other. I have gotten to know him, and his wife a little bit. I was actually the first one to egister in ohio. Senator klobuchar thank you. It is like saying you cant be a patriot. And i would reverse that immediately. Within the first hundred ays. And in los angeles, he came with me. Yeah, exactly. Senator klobuchar thank you. Thank you. How are you . Thats cool. Thank you. I saw you out in the crowd. My question was the one on bipartisanship. Senator klobuchar i think i answered that. I think im the only one on the stage that has passed 100 bills that are in congress right now. It may not be the number one issue in a democratic primary, but i am not running for head of the dnc. Am running for president. Thank you. All right, thats great. Thank you. Senator klobuchar thank you. Could i get a picture . Senator klobuchar ok, sure. O problem. Everybody look right here, please. 1, 2, three. Wonderful. Thats great. Thank you, guys, very much. Senator klobuchar thank you, guys. Thank you. You did a great job up there. Senator klobuchar thank you. That means a lot to see you. I live in New Hampshire. Isnt that lucky . Senator klobuchar i made a woman from iowa who moved to New Hampshire and i said, do you only live in firstrun tates . And she said, no, i lived in florida too. I thought that was pretty funny. Senator klobuchar oh, that is nice. They can come to any of our events here. We have money. Ok, thank you. Thank you, so much. Thank you for answering my question. I kept waiting, like a kid, waiting and waiting. Senator klobuchar it worked out, thank you. Two debates in a row. T is all good. Senator klobuchar thank you. How are you . Im good. Senator klobuchar nice to see you. I had my eyes on you uys. Senator klobuchar are you from here . Good. And i said i have found two people who know exactly what i am talking about. Thank you, for coming. It was wonderful to hear you. Senator klobuchar thank you. Youre welcome. You did great. Thank you. Senator klobuchar ok, thank you. Hanks, guys. Thank you for coming by. I saw you in the back. Great to be here. I like to see what everybody has o say. Could i have a selfie . Senator klobuchar sure. Here we go. There you are. I will take a picture of the crowd. Senator klobuchar ok. Thanks so much. Senator klobuchar thank you for stopping by. Do you guys want to go there . Can we get a shot over there . Senator klobuchar all right, uys. Next, President Trump discusses teen age vaping and e crig rhett yuste. He held this at the white house and was joined by several others. This is an hour. This is one hour