Career in 2006, she became the first woman elected to the United States senate from minnesota. Now in her third term, senator klobuchar has earned a reputation as a prolific lawmaker and has one of the senates best track records when it comes to getting her bills enacted into law. Shes introduced more legislation than any other senate democrat. This morning, well hear from senator klobuchar about how she would shape the policy landscape as president , including her views on issues ranging from Climate Change to infrastructure to health care. Recently, senator klobuchar outlined more than 100 things she would do during her first 100 days as president. We probably wont get into all 100 today, but lets get started. Please welcome senator klobuchar and the Washington Post robert costa. [applause] robert please, take a seat. Good morning. Im bob costa, National Political reporter here at the Washington Post. Thanks so much for joining us this morning for another post live 2020 conversation. Thank you so much, senator klobuchar, for being here this morning. Sen. Klobuchar thank you, bob. Robert taking some time off the campaign trail. We cover her on capitol hill and on the campaign trail now, of course. Former prosecutor from minnesota, u. S. Senator, now running for president. Youre facing a lot of tough questions, not only as a candidate but as a u. S. Senator. Big issues in the world. One of them right now is iran. Escalating tensions. Would you support military intervention . Sen. Klobuchar not at this time. I think that if the president was at all serious about that, you always leave everything on the table, but if he was serious about that, he has to come before congress for an authorization on military force instead of relying on the past authorization of militaryforce, which goes way back to 9 11 and involved al qaeda, which isnt an issue here. So that would be my First Response to that. My second is that we didnt have to be where we are today with the news this morning that 17 people, iran claims, that they have arrested and that theyre going to put to death for what they claim are cia connections or the fact that a british tanker, the crew was taken hostage. We wouldnt have to be there if he had simply stayed in the Iranian Nuclear agreement. For so long, our major, one of our major focuses of u. S. Foreign policy was to make sure that iran didnt get a nuclear weapon. Thats why we reached that agreement. It may not have been perfect, but it was something that needed to be done to make sure that we achieve that goal and kept people safe. Instead, he decided to leave basically our european allies holding the bag, gave leverage to china and russia, got out of the agreement, and claimed that he was going to make us safer and that he would get a better deal. Instead, where are we now . 17 people allegedly arrested, a crew taken hostage, and as we speak, iran blowing the caps when it comes to uranium enrichment. So what would i do . I would work to renegotiate ourselves back into that agreement. Robert as part of the renegotiation, if you would reenter the agreement as president , but before that, right now, should sanctions be relieved to try to deescalate the tensions . Sen. Klobuchar well, right now i think if i were to go back in are things you would like to change with some of the sunset time periods and tngs sunset time periods and things like that. But i dont think you want to take the sanctions that are in place, that we had in place already on missiles and things like that. But what i do think we need to do is to look at how we can deescalate things diplomatically. What im talking about here are some of the other sanctions that weve had in place for a long time, which supplemented that agreement. It didnt get at other terrorist activity. Robert speaking of diplomacy, as president , would you try to directly negotiate with the iranian leadership . Senator klobuchar i think it depends on the circumstances. We are, of course, better when we work with our allies. Were stronger when we work with our allies, which is something this president doesnt seem to get. And he sort of has this go it alone attitude, which in my mind has not enhanced our security internationally or certainly not enhanced our reputation internationally. You want to stand with your allies and show that you can do it. Robert one final thing on iran. Youre on the inside, inside the u. S. Senate. Based on your conversations with colleagues, is the u. S. Headed toward military intervention . Sen. Klobuchar weve had some briefings on this that are classified, so i cant go through them, but were always concerned with this president that at any moment he could just decide to do something, and certainly hes sent some more troops over to the mideast because of this escalating crisis. But again, we have been very firm in our belief that, including some republicans, that if hes going to take any action, he has to get an authorization of military force. Robert the president continues to attack four minority women, freshmen members of congress. One of them is from your state, representative omar. Are you close to her politically . Are you friendly with her . Sen. Klobuchar well, i know her pretty well. She was a legislator in our state. We have some disagreements politically. Ive made that clear. But that really isnt what the issue is right now. The issue is that he has chosen to go after four women, elected members of congress. He has chosen to tell them they should go home, basically, which is a racist code word, in my mind. And hes specifically singled her out. Shes, by the way, a mother of three children, one of them quite young. She, i dont know if she has security right now, but she in the past has had serious enough threats against her that a man went to prison. So my immediate concern for her is her safety. The second thing is that we stand up and call this out for what it is. When he stood basking in that chant, send her home, he didnt stop that chant. And two things that came to my mind, the first was when john mccain was in my state in minnesota and someone said something racist about barack obama at a town hall meeting right before the election was coming up. Mccain put a stop to it and said, no, thats not true. Hes a good man. We may disagree. That happens. Robert why dont your republican colleagues do that anymore . Sen. Klobuchar i dont know, but they have not done that. You should ask them. I think its because they dont want to piss him off, if i could be blunt. Im known as being blunt, so thats what it is. Robert we welcome that here today. Sen. Klobuchar thank you thank you, yes. So the second thing about this beyond her security, beyond that we should be standing up clearly against this, not just democrats, but theres really two more things to learn from this. The first is that when he says this thing, it infiltrates through our society, at a point where were already so fractured, it is so dangerous. Its one of the reasons im running for president. I think we should be moving to a higher plane in our politics and america is bigger than this. Illustration of this was during the height of his rhetoric during the campaign in 2016. I heard the story of a minnesota family of four. The parents had been in our state through 9 11 and had not experienced discrimination. As you remember, president bush stood up and said we shouldnt be taking this out on all people from this region or on muslims. He very clearly said this. And people took it to heart. I remember i was a prosecutor at the time, and i went with the u. S. Attorney and met with our Muslim Community to make it clear that we were going to protect them from hate crimes. Now lets fast forward to 2016. Donald trumps running for office. The rhetoric is all over there. What happens to this family of four . They go out to dinner, and theyre at a normal restaurant. This guy walks by, looks down at them and says, you four go home. Exact same words. You four go home. You go home to where you came from. And this little girl looks up at her mom and she says, mom, i dont want to eat dinner at home tonight. You said we could eat out tonight. You think of the words of that innocent child. She only knows one home, and thats my state. She only knows one home, thats the United States of america. So we have to remember that when he says these things, its not just one person saying them. Thats why that chant was so significant. He passes that on. He condones that kind of rhetoric. And the final and last thing that is, to me, the most important, is he does this to distract people from what i hope were going to talk about in our remaining time. Thats the issues before us. I have a quote from Tony Morrison that congresswoman omar put on her twitter feed. It says, the function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. Right . And that is what hes doing. We have to remember that every day its a trap. Yes, you stand up, but you have to acknowledge its a trap. He doesnt want to talk about the broken promises and the 10,000plus lies that this newspaper has documented. The broken promises littering the carpet of the oval office. He doesnt want to talk about that. That is what really makes people that voted for him that arent the ones at the rally, thats what makes them step back and think, maybe i should vote for someone else. This is the pharmaceutical prices that have been escalating and going through the roof. This is the fact he hasnt done anything on infrastructure when he promised that. What we just talked about iran. So its really important that as hurtful as what he says is to respond but then remind people why hes doing it. It is not just to rally up his base. Its to distract from other issues. Robert if you were the democratic president ial nominee, would you invite congresswoman omar to speak at the convention . Sen. Klobuchar oh, i even thought through that. I think you should have many voices at the convention. I think thatll be something our party and our will decide. But i think well have many voices. We always have. Robert including hers . Sen. Klobuchar im not going to extend invitations to people, if only ill have that power. Then ill make that decision. I wouldnt commit to anyone speaking right now at the democratic convention. Except barack obama. [laughter] robert you said the democrats should focus on policy, but what should they do to counter President Trump, if anything, on race if hes going to put that at the fore of the campaign . Sen. Klobuchar i think, again, we have to firmly stand up against racism. After charlottesville when he says theres two sides, when the other side is the ku klux klan, no, theres not two sides. So thats the first thing. The second is taking on the issues that will combat racism and not just the rhetoric of racism but the actual economic injustices of racism. And i would start with voting, right. How can you have Economic Justice and fairness if people cant even exercise their right to vote . And that means everything from the Voter Suppression that were seeing across the country, the fact that in the state of georgia, if the secretary of state, who was the candidate for governor, hadnt withheld 58,000 voter registrations because of things like hyphens in names, that stacy abrams would most likely be governor today of the state of georgia. So it is reauthorizing the Voting Rights act, which i will push for as president. Used to be a bipartisan endeavor. Secondly, looking at innovative ways to make it easier for people to vote same day registration. We know those states that have it. By the way, some are red states. Some are like iowa that has two republican senators. I think they have same day, but they have more open voting laws. Youve got maine and new hampshire, some of these states that have made it easier to vote. Theyre not always pure blue states. I just want to make that clear. What they have in common is they have high voter turnout, whether theyre red, purple, or blue, like my own state. Sameday registration, looking at passing my bill which says every kid when theyre eligible to vote should be automatically registered when they turn 18. This is a country that we have the highest level of technology. Everyone gets their Social Security numbers. People, once they pass their drivers test, get their driving license. Why cant we do the same with voting registration . So things like that. Taking the dark money out of politics by passing a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united. Looking at the whole panaplea of things available to us to do when it comes to elections. I think that is the first thing. The second is policies. It is the Africanamerican Community and the immigrant community that is most hurt when things are done with cuts to programs with heating or cuts to programs when it comes to helping people with education. So looking at how we can make that more fair is by simply advancing an economic agenda thats about opportunity and not chaos. To me, that means from cradle to grave. It starts with early childhood. The fact that kids that know more words do better in school. So thats allday kindergarten and that is a better preschool. Thats work family leave. Thats childcare. Then you go into school and making sure our Public Schools are better funded and our teachers are paid, and then you go into the College Level and make sure that we make that more affordable, especially with one and twoyear degrees. There are so many openings. So many kids have gone off the grid that could get back on the grid with getting those degrees and move on to a fouryear degree. My sister did that. She never graduated from high school. She went and got her ged years later and got enough confidence to get her twoyear Community College degree and from there got a degree in accounting. My dad got a twoyear Community College degree. So im someone that kind of has lived that world and understands it in my heart, how important it is to understand that in communities of color and all over the country, there are many paths to success. Robert Robert Mueller is testifying on capitol hill this week. You are a member of the Judiciary Committee in the senate. What should Democrats Ask him about the attorney general william barr . Sen. Klobuchar so i think the first thing that, well, ok, i have my own selfish thing i want asked. Robert whats that . Sen. Klobuchar its related to william barr because at the end of our hearing with barr, i think he was kind of tired. I went in with one of the last questions. It was my second round of questions. And i asked if director mueller and his team had looked at the tax returns and the financial documents. Barr said, well, youll have to ask him. I go, ok, are you going to make him available then to come here . Since you dont know. He said, no, you got to ask him. Well, we still arent seeing him in front of the senate Judiciary Committee. But i very much hope that someone asks that question. And its related to barr because the house members, who if theyre listening right now, they will be able to cite that part of the transcript. Hopefully that question will be asked. I think that there should be questions about what he was told about how he could roll out his report and everything that happened with the summary, which he clearly had some issues with when you look at the letter that mueller later sent saying about that summary and the characterizations of his report. I think thats important, especially journalists will thrive on if there was some kind of an attempt to squelch mueller. But i think the real core, bob, of what needs to be looked at here is, of course, questions about the obstruction of justice pieces of this. This is a good journalist one. About when things can be declassified, his views on that. Ive been able to see only the volume of the report about obstruction because im on the Judiciary Committee. Ive been able to see those parts of the classified, which i found interesting. So i hope that everyone will be able to see them. I think they are waiting for these trials to be done involving some of the people that have been indicted. I think its very important people see that. I have not even seen the volume of the report, despite all the work ive done on elections and russia, ive not been allowed to see the classified piece of that report. Only the people on the intelligence committee, which is crazy to me, have been able to see that. Even though im leading the bill on the secure election act. Robert why is that . Sen. Klobuchar that was a rule we got from the department of justice. I went in there and saw the pieces that i could see on volume, i think its volume two. Volume one is the russia thing. If ive got them reversed, then give me pinocchio. But i think thats right. But the russia thing had the most redacted. Thats the thing we could do something about right away. We should be putting in place rules of the road on propaganda, especially the paid ads when 3 billion to 4 billion is forecast to be spent on social media, company, i emphasize company, ads because theyre forprofit companies. They should have to reveal those ads and not just voluntarily and all their crazy ways. Also, of course, backup paper ballots. Why does that matter . If mueller could have a chance to go through what russia did in a way thats understandable to people and that they dont have to plow through a report of which all these pages are redacted, i think thats going to help us to advance the cause to get something done immediately. Robert you just mentioned your work on election safety. Are the ballots for 2020, the u. S. Election voting system, is it vulnerable to interference in 2020 and to what extent . Sen. Klobuchar yes, i think it is. I think theres some good work going on over at the defense department. Minnesota born. Many others are really trying diligently. What i hate about this story, despite people, patriotic people trying to protect our elections, is whats happening at the top. We know now from the Mueller Report it wasnt just 20some states that tried to hack into the equipment in 50 states. In muellers report, he said theyre doing it in a sweeping and systematic fashion. If thats not enough for you, Christophe