Klobuchar: ‘I Am Happy’ to Be Polling at 2 Percent

Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she was “happy” to be polling at 2% in a recent CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa caucuses poll.

Partial transcript as follows:

BRENNAN: We go now to one of those candidates campaigning in Iowa today, Senator Amy Klobuchar who is in Cedar Rapids. Senator—

KLOBUCHAR: Hey, Margaret.

BRENNAN: Good- good- good to talk to you today. We just went through those polls. Are there just too many candidates running? Why do you think only a handful are- are actually breaking through?

KLOBUCHAR: Well first of all, I am happy to be in the top six and ahead of 18 people and we’ve got a long campaign ahead of us. I’m- always been a- a Vikings fan, and I can’t tell you how many games, Margaret, where the Vikings were leading in the first quarter and go on to not quite make it. So I think you see a fluid race and yes, there are a lot of candidates and you’re going to see that narrowed down over time. I- I’m clearly on the debate stage and expect to be there in the fall. And I think that’s going to give opportunity to voters in Iowa and all across the country to really narrow it down. And for me being from the Midwest and someone that’s running on a track record of getting things done, being effective, passing one hundred bills where I was the lead Democrat since I’ve been in the Senate- I think those are things that are going to matter to people. They want to see a vision that is not Donald Trump’s, that’s not chaos every morning with every single tweet. The people here in this state, like all states around the country, want a true leader who’s going to get stuff done for them and cares about things that matter in their everyday lives, like the cost of pharmaceuticals, or the fact that we’ve got so many farms going under here in Iowa because of his trade war, and the way he’s handled biofuels with secret waivers that he’s given to the oil companies- you name it. There’s a lot of people, despite the fact that our economy has been at a stable state in the last decade- it’s getting harder and harder for a lot of people to make it.

BRENNAN: So, Senator Kamala Harris made this case last night that she is a prosecutor. That’s her definition. Joe Biden, the former vice president, you know, sort of paints himself in restoration- familiar. You hear Bernie Sanders as a revolutionary. As a Midwest moderate, what actually defines you and breaks you out of the pack?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, what breaks me out of the pack is the fact that I have passed 100 bills where I’m lead Democrat and has been- have been consistently considered one of the most effective senators on a lot of different surveys. The other thing is, I’m able to win in red districts. I’ve done it every single time, won every single red congressional district. And that’s not by selling out of my values. I’d say I’m a proven progressive and that means I put the progress back in progressive. But it’s because I go where it is not just comfortable. I go where it’s uncomfortable. I meet people where they are. I was in Cresco, Iowa just last night. We had big crowd there. Proud to announce two new legislators supporting me down here in Iowa. So I’m running this as a grassroots campaign, and I’m doing it the right way, with grit. I’ve always been the one that people didn’t expect to win, but I have won every single race I’ve ever run and I’m going to go in there with looking at our entire ticket–

BRENNAN: Yeah.

KLOBUCHAR: –and how we lead from the grassroots and bring people with us.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN