Cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. 2020 democratic president ial candidate Amy Klobuchar held a town hall with iowa caucusgoers. She discussed her plans to address Climate Change, student debt, and the impeachment trial. This is an hour and 10 minutes. Sen. Klobuchar thank you for that beautiful introduction and your great leadership. Thank you. Thank you very much. Todd,i want to thank beautiful job. Thank you for your work and all you do for working people. Molly has been with me since the st. Patricks day parade. Where are you . There she is. I also know rob is here. Thank you. Rob was way ahead of his time on Climate Change and you should be proud of the work he has done. Also, where are you . Over here. Thank you. It is great to have her on my site nationally. Thats on my side nationally. Are you . Here numeral the iowa city council. Member of the iowa city council. I also want to mention our organizers, rachel, claire. Thank you for what you are doing. Middle of what someone called a surge, and we keep going up. A friend of mine sent a text and it had an auto correct my mistakes, it said, congratulations on your insurgency. I am happy to take those words. That is fine by me. I think that is what you are seeing all over this country. We had our first double digit National Poll yesterday. [applause] sen. Klobuchar we are well aware some of the other candidates are more wellknown than me, they are people that ran for president before. What i love about the early states, nevada where i am going in next not because of the snow. It was planned. Iowa and South Carolina and New Hampshire, the citizens of these states understand that they have this special obligation to make a decision. I think you all know the candidate that was the front runner from the beginning is one that came out of the Group Getting out of iowa and not only does not always the one that became the president. I give you a great example of people who have come out of this state strong and going on to become president , jimmy carter, bill clinton, and barack obama. [applause] we are happyr about this. Ever since that last debate, we brought in over 1 million in small contributions in 24 hours. They are from regular people. We have been able to double our field offices in iowa, we doubled our staff in New Hampshire and other states. That is what we are doing. We are doing it the real way and the grassroots way. There is a reason my buttons are green. Colors of paul wellstone. Green is the color of one of my mentors, paul wellstone, i will tell you one thing, his best friend was tom harkins in the u. S. Senate. Someone who started his campaign where no one expected him to win and he drove around in his boss and drove around in snow, like what we are doing, one of the funny things he would do in his ads he had so much less money that his multimillionaire opponents, he would talk fast and say that is what i have to do, i only have 30 seconds and i have to say three times as much. He wouldve run fast and all the parades, back and forth. In the last year of his life early inied tragically his 30 senate race, he was going to win at that race and he had taken a courageous abode against the iraq war. Which was my position as well. That was not a good thing to do. He took that courageous vote and he was still going to win that election. He also that year had to tell the state he had ms and could not run back and forth, he was in pain. He took that courageousthat yeao young with his wife in this plane crash and trusted members of their staff, that was the year where he would stand on the back of his boss because he could not run back and forth in the parades anymore. I hadto be there because no opponent in my reelection it sounds really nice to have no opponent. I got toopponent, so be there with him and i got to see what the magic was. He would stand at the back of the bus and wave. There were so many people in these green shirts running around that bus that you did not notice he was running himself. Hundreds of people running around that bus. That is grassroots politics. That is politics at its best, you bring people with zero instead of shoving them out. That is a good way to begin our discussion. We have this opportunity like we have never seen in this country. We have the opportunity to make clear to the world, to our fellow citizens, we have the opportunity to make clear that our country has a bigger heart than that guy in the white house right now. We are bigger than that. What unites us is bigger than what divides us. You know there are where the economic arguments we are having on the activate stage. And we are having them vigorously. That is good to have. It is good for our party to debate things. We have debates about health care and the best way to cover people, the best way to afford college, what we do about Climate Change, the existential crisis of our time . We are having those debates. Twoi do not to forget things. What unites us is bigger than what we divides us. The second thing is, there is an economic check going on right hason this president , who left our farmers and workers behind. Ask the guy in crawfordsville who took out a coat rack to show me. The coat rack, he was the last guy standing in the plant, his job is to maintain equipment. Because of the trade war but mostly because of those waivers that donald trump gave to the oil companies, this guy brings out a coat rack and it has the uniforms of his coworkers that are not working there anymore. Arer names are mark, they embroidered on there, derek, salvador. He says, i keep this coat rack and every uniform was ironed. I remember my coworkers. So i remember they can come back. It is an economic check on this guy. It is bigger than that. It is also a decency check. It is also a decency check. It is a value check. It is a patriotism check. This is a guy that was at the g20 conference, and he is standing next to vladimir putin, and a Reporter Asks him, what about russias invasion in our election, and he turns to vladimir putin, that ruthless dictator, and makes a joke about it. He makes a joke. Hundreds of thousands of americans, irelands thousands of ioans thousands lives. Ns lost their think about those four little girls who at the height of the Civil Rights Movement lost their lives in that church in alabama. Simply because they were trying to extend our democracy and other people tried to push back so it would not apply to them. So many of the great moments in the bad moments in our country and been about democracy, we must and we deserve a president who puts our country and democracy first. Not puts his private interest a value check, and we have to understand that there are people out there you know what happened 2016. Parts of our fired up Democratic Base stayed home. We cannot let that happen again. Some people voted for other people. We have people that are independent and moderate republicans across the country that stayed home, voted for other people, or voted for donald trump. 31 of iowas counties voted for barack obama 31 of your counties and then voted for donald trump. This is what im talking about. The rancher in minnesota this was my first glimmer of this. He took me on a tour of his cattle ranch on an atv and we , and i thought this is not how i want to die, and finally everyone leaves and the cattle ranchers leave, and im alone with him in his ranch house, and he says to me, you know, we voted for donald trump. I said what do you mean, ranchers, my family . He says i mean i. We voted for donald trump because we were mad about health care. , a wild later, he stood in front of that wall and that was wrong. I set the wall wasnt really built. He said, no, i mean the cia wall. The wall of the stars of the anonymous agents. Thats a sacred wall. Donald trump went there and the day after the inauguration gave an incredibly partisan speech about the size of his crowd, and he did that in front of a wall of cia agents who were anonymous who lost their lives in the line of duty for their country and this guy says, that was wrong. And then he says the boy scout rally. He said i was a boy scout and he said donald trump gave a political speech in front of a group of young men. He did that. And i can tell you first of all, my husband was a boy scout. Oh, i forgot to introduce him. He is standing right there. Right there. Yes. [applause] senator klobuchar he was a boy scout from minnesota. There were six brothers and five of the six became eagle scouts. I dont like to say which one didnt make it because i dont want to embarrass my husband, and he was actually on the debate team thats why but anyway, this guy, he says he was a boy scout and when he sought from give that speech to the boy scouts at the jamboree, he said that was it when he saw trump give that speech to the boy scouts at the jamboree, he said that was it. Notaid he decided it was patriotic, that he did the wrong thing when he went into the voting booth. Then in New Hampshire, there was in a more rural part of New Hampshire and there was a line of people and they all had these happy stickers, im a Supreme Court voter, im a Climate Change voter, i may reproductive rights voter, and theres this guy wearing a brown jacket who has no sticker, and i said you dont have a sticker, and he leans forward and says, thats because i was a trump voter. These are my neighbors, and they dont know, so dont say anything right now in front of them, and he says, but you know what . I am not doing it again. That is what im talking about. I do not us to forget this. If you think these are just stories im telling, i think you know people like this. There may be a few people like this in this room. Look at what just happened in louisiana where we reelected a democratic governor. Look at what happened in kentucky where Mitch Mcconnell now has a democratic governor. Look at what happened in the state of virginia with this incredibly Diverse Group of candidates we want to put in the state house and senate. In louisiana and kentucky, you know what they have in common . The night before those democratic governors got elected, guess who went down there and campaign for their opponents . Donald trump. My question is where can we send him next . That happened. When you look at those days, that was a big coalition. That was a fired up base but also moderates and independents. By the way, if we can win in the state of kentucky and louisiana and when doug jones won in tell me we cannot win a u. S. Senate seat in the state of iowa you can win that senate seat. We can win that seat. I mean, look at what you did. You sent abby and cindy to the u. S. Congress in the last election. You elected dave and soon to be very closees, came to sending steve king away from washington, and this time, you will do it and elect jd. You can do that, but only only if we understand that we have to bring people with us instead of shutting them out. Only if we put someone at the top of the ticket who gets that we need a long ticket and long coat tails and guess that we need to be not just where it is comfortable but where it is comfortable and, yes, i just visited all 99 counties in the state of iowa. I was at a planetarium that they opened especially for me in cherokee at 11 00 at night. It was actually quite. We went everywhere, and we had some trump people with their maga hats, and that was funny, and they say how are you going to pay Something Like childcare, and i wait 10 minutes, and i say you know how them going to pay for things i went through every single thing. We are going to take the Corporate Tax rate that donald to 21 ook and went down and even if we take for points of that, we get 400 billion for somestructure, we can put into childcare, and i went through the hedge fund loophole. That brings in 18 billion. The oil giveaway brings in 30 billion, and i and by saying . Hat has your president done a has treated you like bunch of poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos. I want people to remember that as much as people will be different, weve got to answer their questions and make our case. As much as it is an economic case, it is also a value case, a patriotism case, a decency case, and if you want to have an iowa example of it, it is right here in your state. Birthplace of one joseph welch, way before i was born, he was the kid of immigrants, and he grew up without a lot of money, and he rose to become the head lawyer, the council for the United States army, and he had his calling, and that was during the mccarthy hearing. When Joseph Mccarthy of wisconsin was going after people for their political beliefs, after people that did not even have the political beliefs he said they had. He was getting people blacklisted so they could not work and, then he would hold many hearings, and so people were afraid of taking him on. They were afraid of taking him on because they thought they would lose their jobs or their friends would lose their jobs or their family would lose their jobs, but there was one guy that stood up to him, and that was the counsel of the United States name was joseph welch, and he stood up and he said on national tv to joseph have you no sense of decency, sir . Have you no sense of decency . That is the state of this election. It is a decency check. In going to be a juror next week in this. Theres a lot of updates to give you on many things that are happening, but to give you an update, we are still wrangling, for good reason, over how that trial is going to go. Donald trump claims he will be exonerated. Then why is he afraid to call all the president s men to come testify . We are looking for for witnesses, his acting chief of staff sources under oath said ordered the aid be held to this fledgling democracy of ukraine, who he had called the president and called to ask a favor to look for dirt on a political opponent. We want to hear from mr. Bolton, who had a lot of information. People testified he told his own staff to go see a lawyer after they met with the president , and two people named lehr and duffy. We just found out this weekend that mr. Duffy had sent an email that came out on a freedom of thatmation request actually said the president of the United States has said to hold this aid under his orders. Smoking guns, but we have not been able to question that witness. That is what has been going on as we try to get a fair hearing so the American Public can have their due and listen to what these witnesses say. That is what is happening now. A juror there will be 100 jurors but you will be a juror to decide which candidate should be leading our ticket and who can best beat donald trump. That is an important [applause] that is aobuchar very Important Role that you play. I may not be able to be here every day. Thats one of the reasons im here now, why i did 27 counties in three days ended seven town halls in New Hampshire, including new years eve at 5 00 p. M. We got to say to them as i will say to you to fill out those caucus cards. I say to them in New Hampshire, you can fill out commit to vote cards. Anyway, we did that. We have gone everywhere because i know that i may not be able to be here as much, but john will be here. My daughter will be here. These incredible surrogates look at them in the front row will be here for me. Senator klobuchar while we are doing that, i am going to need you to do your job, talking to your neighbors and friends about the candidates. Not all of us have 1 billion we are going to be able to spend on political capital, and its true ok, this isnt working. [laughter] klobuchar ok, very good. [applause] senator klobuchar ok, so, so anyway, that is what i need you to do. We are not all in the same boat in this race, but our campaign is the real campaign. Our campaign is doing this the right way. When you talk to your friends, these are a few things i want you to talk about. I have than to these states we lost in 2016, states like pennsylvania where we lost, which was a shock to everyone. We came roaring back by winning the governorship and that senate seat in pennsylvania. Michigan i have talked to dockworkers. Wisconsin, i have talked to Dairy Farmers there. Ohio, iowa when you think of these states, our plan is this we are going to build a big, blue, beautiful wall around the midwest, and we are going to make donald trump pay for it, ok . [cheers and applause] and when youchar talk to your friends and neighbors and maybe people who are not sure what they are going to do in this thing, youve got to remind them of this a lot of times we talk about donald trump as a bully. He is that, but i also what you to remember he has not kept his problems to people. He said he would bring pharmaceutical cost down. He has not done that. He said he would deliver bigtime on infrastructure. You have seen levees bursting in iowa. You have not seen the work we need to see on our roads and dams, our what . Oh, shes taking a call. Its friday afternoon. On our rural broadband, we have not seen the kind of work that we need to be done. It has not happened. Tell them that, but remember, for them, he has not fulfilled his promises, and instead of a bully, think about it a different way. When regular people get confronted with things, when your Union Workers get confronted with things, what do they do . They have got to take another job. Or their spouse has to take another job. They got to find a way to make ends meet. What does this guy do who lives in the best house in the country, who has the best job, who came in there with four hundred 13 million from his dad during the course of his career i cannot wait to say to him on the debate stage first of all, midwest is not flyover country to me. I live here. Secondly, you got 413 million from your dad. My life started when my grandpa saved money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to a twoyear community college. My grandpa worked that job he was the oldest of nine kids. He had to help raise them when his parents died and he had to help raise with my grandma his two boys. He saved money in a coffee can. That was my family trust. You do not fit 413 million in a coffee