Amy Klobuchar made the case for former foe Joe Biden on the opening night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention while criticizing President Trump over his opposition to funding the U.S. Postal Service.
“Unity isn’t about settling. It’s about striving for something more. It isn’t the end. It’s the means; it’s how we get stuff done,” the 13-year Minnesota senator said of the two-term vice president.
She added of Trump, “The president may hate the Post Office, but he’s still going to have to send them a change-of-address card come January.”
Klobuchar, once the top prosecutor for her Minneapolis-anchored county, was a vice presidential contender before civil unrest gripped her home state, and the rest of the country, after George Floyd, a black man, died while being arrested by a squad of white police officers.
“This is a historic moment, and America must seize on this moment,” Klobuchar told MSNBC. “I truly believe, as I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket.”
Klobuchar also defended colleague and Biden’s eventual running mate pick, California Sen. Kamala Harris. Last week, she used colorful language to condemn President Trump evoking gender and racial stereotypes against Harris. He painted Harris, a fellow former prosecutor, as “nasty” and “very disrespectful” for her questioning of Biden during the primary and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation.
“For the president to go before the country like he just did and not just say, ‘I congratulate her, we welcome her to the race,’ that’s what leaders do,” Klobuchar told Fox News. “Instead, what did he do? He called her angry, he called her nasty, he went back to those same criticisms with the words we have heard him use against women throughout this presidency. And I just think that’s crap.”
Klobuchar joined Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Monday night as a handful of former White House hopefuls who will address the convention after their own nominating dreams were dashed. The senator dropped out of contention before Super Tuesday after a late surge in Iowa and New Hampshire, propelled by strong fall debate performances. That same day, she endorsed Biden, urging Democrats to support him and his centrist message over Sanders’s far-left rhetoric for the sake of down-ballot races.
