With so much partisan division in our country, "joy" is not a word typically associated with politics, but it is for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. She sat down with Geoff Bennett to discuss her new book, "The Joy of Politics."
William Brangham:
With so much partisan political division in our country, joy is not a word typically associated with politics, but it is for Minnesota's senior Senator Amy Klobuchar.
As she recently explained to Geoff Bennett, it's the topic of her new book, "The Joy of Politics."
Geoff Bennett:
Senator Amy Klobuchar, welcome to the "NewsHour."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN):
Thank you, Geoff. It's great to be on.
Geoff Bennett:
This is an intimate memoir. You invite readers into your personal life, your fight with cancer, losing your father, almost losing your husband to COVID, your run for president, all of it within the same three-to-four-year period.
How did you make it through?
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Like a lot of America has made it through, actually.
And that's one of the reasons I want to try it the book, is that everyone has been through so much. Everyone knows someone that they have lost. And if they didn't lose someone, they lost going to weddings and funerals, little kids bouncing on their parents' knees while they got the laptop on their desk.
And then you have got the political divides that we have seen. You have seen the violence out there. And it's just been a really hard time. So my answer to it was, yes, be honest about what we have been through, but not spend my whole time lamenting the setbacks, but instead rejoicing in the comebacks, that we have come through this, that we're gathering together again.
And there's a joy in getting things done in Washington.
Geoff Bennett:
You wrote something at the end of chapter one that really struck me, and you wrote about obstacles.
You say:
"Your obstacles are your path. And sometimes, when you don't quite make it to the top of the trail, you learn all kinds of lessons along the way."
What did you learn from your obstacles?
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Well, the first thing I learned was — with the breast cancer is, just be thankful for what you have got every single day. And I know other cancer survivors feel the same way about it.
And then it was, how do you make something good out of all this? And, for me, it was coming out saying, hey, I waited too long to get my mammogram, but I got it. And I was able to get through it 100 percent OK.
Geoff Bennett:
You open the book reading about your husband and all the sacrifices that he and so many other political spouses make.
And you talk in detail about his near-fatal fight with COVID. He was in the hospital, was in isolation after that for almost a month. That was, I imagine, a frightening and clarifying moment. How did it change you?
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Well, it certainly — to have it happen right that — basically the first month of major COVID in our country, there were no vaccines, and to have that scary moment where I can't go in to see him. I'm relying on other people to tell me how he's doing.
So I think that made me really devoted, one, to doing everything we could to get a vaccine, which really helped. Science helped us get this through this. And then, secondly, to help people with their personal issues, with their economics, with "the-post COVID, whatever mental health, the problems people have had. It really zeroed in my focus on that at the time.
Geoff Bennett:
In the book, you pull back the curtain on certain moments in our history in a way that I think political watchers will appreciate, starting with Donald Trump's inauguration, that dark America first speech that he delivered.
The late Senator John McCain was seated next to you. And he was whispering things to you under his breath. What did he say?
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Well, we're all together, people of all parties, there for the new president. And, instead, it's dark.
And John starts whispering names of — basically, of people like Mussolini to me, Huey Long. And he's actually reciting speeches and dates and lines from the speeches, because he was such a student of history, and connecting them to the Trump speech.
Geoff Bennett:
Wow.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
That all happened.
And the final thing he whispered to me as the guests kind of load onto the stage, he goes — and he's so funny. He goes: "Well, this is an all-time record."
(LAUGHTER)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
I go: "What do you mean?"
He goes:
"Most money ever spent on plastic surgery on an inaugural stage in the history of America."
That happened.
Geoff Bennett:
John McCain said that.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Yes, he did.
(LAUGHTER)
Geoff Bennett:
Well, fast-forward to your own run for president, which this picture captures the moment where you delivered your speech in an epic snowstorm in Minneapolis.
You talk about how you got to know your Democratic contenders in different ways, then-candidate Joe Biden, now-President Joe Biden, of course. During breaks during the debates, he would say things to you to boost your spirits. Tell us more about that.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Yes.
And I think people know what a kind person the president is. And he was always saying: "Good line. That was a great job, kid. You did great on that."
He was — he would do that at town halls. He would do it all the time. And…
Geoff Bennett:
And the debate where you couldn't bring pens on stage, and your pen exploded.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Excuse me. That was the PBS debate.
Geoff Bennett:
Oh, It was.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Yes, it was.
Geoff Bennett:
We were wondering which debate it was.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Yes, it was. It was in L.A. It was a fantastic debate, so well-moderated.
But what happened is, you have that five minutes — and you have seen candidates do it — where you have to scribble down your notes.
Geoff Bennett:
Yes.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
What do you remember? What facts? What story?
So I'm trying to do it. The pen just goes on me, explodes. I get ink on my hands. I turn to Bernie, who's on my right, which, on its own, is funny.
(LAUGHTER)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
So I'm like, hey. And that's when I realize he's brought in his own pen and is — so he gives me the pen.
So that pen also doesn't work. So, Steyer is on my left, Tom Steyer. So he has also his own pen. This is when I realize, guys, I guess this is easy for you. He gives me the final last debate pen, my third pen. It works. It turns out to be a great debate for me. So I still — I'd like to thank those two guys for giving me the pen.
(LAUGHTER)
Geoff Bennett:
You also detail what happened on January 6, 2021.
And you stayed in the building well past midnight with then-Vice President Mike Pence, making sure that the vote would be certified. What do you recall from that day?
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Well, it started out as a celebration, this ceremony where we're leading basically a parade of senators to the House with the young kids with mahogany boxes filled with the ballots.
And then it ends 13 hours later, after the insurrection, with still just the Capitol a disaster zone, a crime scene, actually. And it is just Roy Blunt and me, the former Republican senator from Missouri, and we led the Rules Committee. That's why we were the ones in charge.
And with Vice President Pence. We're the only three left in the Senate chamber with these three pairs of young pages who are carrying those mahogany boxes, which a member of the parliamentarian's staff had the presence of mind to say, "Get these out of the Senate," when we all ran out, because they would have been destroyed or burned, for sure.
And we're walking down now over broken glass. You see pillars on the side that are filled with racist vulgarities. And we make that last walk. And our goal and our mission was to make sure democracy prevailed. And we got to the House, and it did. And those kids carrying those boxes is what I remembered the most.
Geoff Bennett:
How do you find the joy in politics? And it's a pursuit that some people could find joyless.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Right.
So, for me, it's the joy in getting things done. That is number one. It's the joy in helping individual people. It's the joy in actually seeing democracy at its best.
Geoff Bennett:
Senator Amy Klobuchar.
The book is "The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life's Other Unexpected Curveballs."
It's always so great to speak with you. Thanks for coming in.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar:
Thanks, Geoff. It was great.