Sen. Amy Klobuchar claimed the 2020 election will be a “patriotism check” for supporters of President Trump.
Klobuchar, 59, argued that the upcoming presidential election needs to be about more than maintaining the economy and that independents and centrist Republicans should treat the election as a “check” on their decency and patriotism.
“I have always had strong support from independent voters,” the Minnesota Democrat explained during a Monday MSNBC interview. “I get this. I think this election isn’t just an economic check, which is what most of our debates are. It’s also a decency check on this president. It’s a patriotism check.”
Klobuchar, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, referenced the impeachment votes from Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama and Mitt Romney of Utah as further examples of politicians showing decency and patriotism. Both senators voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial. Jones, a Democrat, represents a deep-red state, which could put his reelection on the line, and Romney was the first senator in history to vote to convict a president from the same party.
“It is the decision of people like Doug Jones of Alabama and Mitt Romney to say, ‘Enough. This is not moral. This guy has got to go.’ To see the former Republican presidential candidate make that decision and then to be in Democratic rallies like I was in — I brought it up every single rally I was in — and everyone cheered Mitt Romney,” she said. “The world is a bit upside-down.”
Klobuchar added, “The heart of America is bigger than the heart of this guy in the White House.”
The Minnesota senator has been enjoying a momentum boost following a strong debate performance days after her centrist rival Joe Biden faltered in the Iowa caucuses. Klobuchar said during the Friday debate that she would be concerned if a democratic socialist such as Sen. Bernie Sanders were at the top of the Democratic ticket.
During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton similarly questioned the values of Trump supporters, saying, “You could put half of Trump supporters into what I call a basket of deplorables: the racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”
