Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said her relationship with Republicans if she won the presidency would be different than President Barack Obama’s because she knows “where the bodies are buried.”
“I do think you have to work across the aisle to get things done. But as we’ve learned over the years with how Sen. McConnell runs the Senate, you have to stand your ground. You have to make clear where you are not going to budge, where you’re going to stand up for the people of this country. I would have a good understanding of that because I have worked with him and worked in the Senate for years,” Klobuchar told CNBC in an interview published Thursday.
CNBC correspondent John Harwood asked the 2020 hopeful if she really believed she would be able to garner Republican support on her major priorities when Obama could not.
“I know those senators well. I’ve been in that Senate for a number of years now. When I look at the priorities I’ve laid out, including the pharmaceutical issue to bring the prices down, I know where the bodies are buried,” she said, also listing infrastructure as a top issue.
Klobuchar said she knows which senators could be persuaded “to do something out of just sheer political reasons because they’re going to lose in their state if they don’t do something about it.”
“This doesn’t mean you’re a pansy. It just means you’re a realist. That if you’re going to get things done, you’ve got to look to where you have friends, and where you have enemies, and move ahead and get it done,” she said.
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