Thats outrageous. Its like an eightlane highway compared to a twoland dirt road. Bret South Carolinas primary two days away with super tuesday behind it. The fight is intensifying in the crowded 2020 democratic field. I think we can get all of those bold progressive things done without having someone that is so alienating. Amy, my favorablety is the highest up here, as a matter of fact. Martha the socalled moderate lane bumper to bumper and headtohead with progressives. I dont know what else she wants us to do were following what she asked to do. The trouble is with this senator, enough is never enough. Martha and each other. I wish everybody was as perfect as you, pete. Bret can the minnesota senator break out in time . Martha when it comes to total votes cast in the first three races, Amy Klobuchar is third behind Bernie Sanders and pete buttigieg. Bret tonight she comes to the tarheel state to continue her fight for the soul of the democratic party. Donald trumps Worst Nightmare is to have someone for the people in the middle that are tired of the insults and extreme politics have someone to vote for. Martha time is not on her side. She has to make her mark fast. The next few days will determine if her campaign for president rolls on. [applause] bret good evening from raleigh, North Carolina, this is one of the 14 states that will vote on super tuesday. What figures to be the most important night so far of the
democratic president ial campaign. Im bret baier. And im martha maccallum. Were next door to South Carolina where theres a big primary saturday, one that joe biden has said he will win. The stakes are very high for the former Vice President s campaign. Bret one of the hopefuls needing a strong finish is our guest tonight. For this fox news town hall. Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar is tied for sixth in South Carolina according to the real clear politics average of polls and nationally martha shes also in sixth plate in the latest fox news poll. She hopes to bridge that gap between her and the frontrunners the next week. Give a warm welcome to minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar. [cheers applause] thanks, guys. Thank you, bret. Martha welcome. Bret warm welcome in the hash tarheel state. I hear you used to work here. Bret i did. Lets get to the questions. The first comes from adrian. Shes an undecided voter. It has to do with the coronavirus. Thank you, senator. Coronavirus has spread like wild fire across china and into other countries including south korea, iran, italy and a growing number of cases in the u. S. As well. The impact goes well beyond Health Implications affecting global trade and finance as witnessed by the stock market plunge this week. Theres also the consideration of growing fear among our citizens. As president , what steps would you take to contain this disease and to prevent pandemics in the future . Thank you so much. This is such a serious matter. We were asked about it at the
debate. I actually noted that a lot of candidates give out their own website. I gave out the cdc website to take the politics out of this, which is cdc. Gov for people to get advice on what they should do, if they feel sick to call their healthcare provider. And the like. And i think part of this right now is planning. It is citizens getting informed. I personally, if you ask what i would have done from the very beginning and this goes back a few years, i wouldnt have proposed cutting the centers for Disease Control and prevention which the president did and propose cutting out the coordinating agency. But we are where we are right now. It is really important to work with countries around the world. Two, to support our Health Professionals and make sure that they have all of the equipment that they need. Three, to support the development of a vaccine, which is months and months and maybe a year away according to some of the professionals out there. And then to really step back and think that this is one pandemic but there may be others. I just dont think we can isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. I believe in science. I believe in not silencing Health Professionals. Im concerned theres some reports about that out there. I think were going to have to were all in this together. Were going to have to get the information to people, were going to have to have the funding on the federal level. The president hasnt really proposed an amount. I think its important to be clear that funding levels can always change. You want to have a set amount you ask for from congress so we can move ahead on emergency preparations. Honesty is the best policy here with people. In terms of things that have happened, i thought that was a
very messy situation with the 14 people off the cruise that we found out they were infected and ended up on the plane. Should have been handled differently. All kinds of things. The most important thing right now is we Work Together as a country, move forward and that everyone be informed and we plan ahead. Bret senator, you said you want to take the politics out of, this weve heard all kinds of aggressive kracharacterizati about the administrations response especially nancy pelosi. Some democrats are being accused of politicizing and why uponizing this virus for politics. The New York Times had an article said lets call it trump virus. If you feel awful, you know who to blame. You want to be commanderinchief. What would you say this is a moment to get behind the president fighting this no matter the party . First of all, i think theres
a lot of frustration there with not requesting the funding with the information i personally called on him to address the nation, which he did the next day after the debate. So i think that youre seeing that bubbling up. We dont have an amount of money were requesting. He said a billion. But then the congress thinks it should be eight billion. An then he said congress should decide. Thats the frustration youre seeing. In any kind of National Crisis america comes together. We must. Its not just the people in washington. Its with local Health Professionals who are going to be on the front line, governors and heads of hospitals in local areas like in North Carolina that are going to be giving advice to people on what they should do. So the reason i said the website is because i think people are going to have to step back and depoliticize this and do what they should do. This isnt normal. This isnt normal. This is a really serious thing. People have died. We want to contain it as much as we can. Use quarantine when we must. Make sure that we are treating people and they get the treatment they need. What we know about this disease, some people get very sick and some people dont get that sick. So we dont want underreaction but you dont want overreaction. Martha lets go to jason who is supporting michael bloomberg. Jason. Hi, jason. Hi, amy. Youre currently behind in delegates and national polls. But i have more delegates than michael bloomberg. This is true. [applause] is it time for some of the more moderate candidates like yourself to consolidate behind one candidate . A nice verb. But this is what i think has to happen. North carolina should care a lot about this. Because only 3 of the people
have voted in this country. If you look, as you note at the delegates and the number of votes because two of those states were caucuses, lets not go to caucuses right now, but because two of the states were caucuses, i have the third biggest vote total in the field right now. And so as we go forward, super tuesday, nearly a third of americans are going to vote. So i think people should have that ability without trying to push people out of this race. As far as the mayor, my concern always has im the one that pushed to have him on the debate stage. I dont know if that was good for him. But i think that you cant just have money determine politics. You cant. So he is running constant ads and thats his right. It creates an uneven playing
field. Im the only one up there on that stage that actually has won in repeatedly in rural areas and in suburban areas, in areas that are more republican and independent. Ive won in Michelle Bachmanns congressional district. I think thats what our nation needs right now. Thats what our party needs. Its a reason that ive gotten the endorsements of not just the New York Times but also the Houston Chronicle which is a very big newspaper as well as the San Francisco paper as well as the Seattle Times paper as well as the bangor maine paper. Most of the focus of these these are long, long interviews you do where you answer questions. And the san jose newspaper. You answer questions about what issues are in their local areas as well as the country. The reason they have endorsed me
is they believe i can unite this country. Martha i know i dont have the biggest bank account. Since the debates, weve been able to bring in from regular people online millions and millions of dollars that have allowed me to continue this campaign the right way, have allowed me to do town halls and places like raleigh and get to all of the states that we need to as well as run some television ads. So i think we should pick the best candidates, not the candidate that has the biggest bank account. [applause] martha senator, you talked about your ability to win in minnesota and turn those districts that are generally republican. There was another minnesota senator that very much wanted to be president of the United States as well. But Walter Mondale in the end, when he made to it the general election won one state and it was minnesota. How do you convince democratic voters that at the position youre at right now, which is about sixth in the coming primaries that you cannot only win the nomination but that you
have what it takes to win nationwide and not remind them of what happened to the last minnesota senator . First, i want to defend Walter Mondale. Hes 91 years old. Martha a very nice guy. And as you know, he was running against Ronald Reagan in his election. He was a good Vice President. I just want to put that in there and an excellent senator. As far as my election, that was a long time ago. This is now. When you look at what we need for our country, were in such a unique moment. We truly need someone in my mind who can work with people across the aisle. The only one in the senate that is left on that stage that has a track record of doing that in a big way. I passed over 100 bills as the lead democrat. The Vanderbilt University in tennessee, last Congress Found me the most effective democrat on 15 different metrics. I think that matters. Because we have someone in the white house right now that wakes up every morning and sends mean tweets. That wakes up every day and figures out how to create wedges. We can do so much better than that as a country. What i have seen across our nation is a number of people that stayed home in 2016 or people that may be even voted for donald trump that are standing back and theyre watching those debates. Believe it or not, they dont agree with everything that is said on the debate stage. I dont agree with everything said on the debate stage. But what unites them is this they believe at the heart of america is bigger than the heart of the person in the white house right now. Its like the cattle rancher that i met in my own state that took me on a tour of his ranch as we dodged the big cows. I thought this is not how i want to die. We went into his house after
ward. Everybody left. He said, you know, we voted for trump. I said what do you mean in the ranchers . He said no, i dont like to talk about myself. I mean, i did. He said i was mad at the time about healthcare. He said but then the day after the inauguration, i saw him standing in front of that wall. I said no, no, the wall is not built. He said the cia wall. He remembered when the president gave a partisan speech about the size of his crowd in front of this sacred wall covered in the stars of the cia agents that had died in the line of duty. This guy said that was bad. I couldnt handle that. Then he went on to explain some other partisan speeches and inappropriate things. He said that was it for me. So i think theres a lot of people that see this election as a decency check. They see it as a patriotism check. They see in this patriotic state of North Carolina that has had so many that served our country,
they see a president that stands next to Vladimir Putin and when hes asked about interference in our election, he makes a joke about it. Think about it. Thousands of people from this great state, hundreds of thousands of people from america have lost their lives standing up for our democracy. Thats what world war ii is about, standing up for democracy. Four girls in a church in birmingham lost their lives as innocence because they wanted to be part of a democracy. Other people were trying to push it away from them. So many of the greatest moments and the worst moments in our countrys history have been about our rights, our freedoms and our democracy. This president makes a joke about it. I want us to remember that. One of my argues for my candidacy, i bring people with me, i dont shut them out. We need that right now. [applause] bret senator, we have heard you make the case for
your candidacy. What would you tell someone that says i like what she said. But what is the path . Tell me the path about how you get the nomination. Are you for a contested conventi convention . How do you get the nomination . I start with this town hall. Just get everybody watching me at home, that will go a long way. I start with this. Then i just keep going. We go and reach people where they are and bill our support. I started at nearly nothing. We keep adding more support. I dont know what will happen at the convention. I just know the people of america have a right to have a candidate that is coming at this in a different way with ideas, when it comes to healthcare and education that arent pipe dreams that are actual plans. Actually will get things done for people. So as far as the convention, the convention has rules. That will be set. Bret so if Bernie Sanders gets there leading with the delegates and he gets to milwaukee, you dont think that he should be the nominee . Theres rules in the convention. He may be the nominee. Theres rules about how that works. From ballot to ballot to ballot. We have to follow the rules. Cant change the rules in the middle of a game. Thats how the rules are. We will see who wins. Will the field be narrowed down at that point some . I would think it would be, yes. Shouldnt be narrowed down when only 3 of americans have voted. Certainly must think this in this state or bret need to win minnesota. Need to win minnesota. I think i should win my state. Im ten points ahead there and have done a lot of work and people know me well there. Martha lets go to kim rose with a question from the audience. Hi, senator. My question is about healthcare. Specifically regarding aca expansion and how it will help
families afford coverage. Can you explain your plan and how its more affordable . Sure. So i think you know the Affordable Care act did a lot of good things. It protected people so they wouldnt be thrown off their Health Insurance for preexisting conditions. One of my fondest memories is being in a small town parade and seeing a woman with a stroller and she pointed at her toddler and she said this is my son. He has downs syndrome. She said i will fight for his healthcare to the end. Then she pauses and says, this is what a preexisting condition looks like. We brought people with us, people from the disability community, people from aarp, with us in that fight to preserve the Affordable Care act. But your question is a good one. How do we make it better. How do we make the premiums more affordable, the drugs more affordable. I think the way you do that is first of all, not blowing it up like some of my colleagues
senator senators and senator warren want to do. I did not get on that bill, medicare for all, a lot of pressure to get on it. I read it. On page 8 of the bill, it says that it will kick 149 Million People off of their current Health Insurance in four years. I dont think that is the answer. What i do think is the answer is making the Affordable Care act better. I would put forward a nonprofit option, something that president obama wanted to do from the beginning that would compete with the insurance companies. One estimate is that for a family making say, 100,000 a year, family of four, it would bring the premiums down by 50 . Because it would simply produce more competition. You could do it with medicare, one idea, or you could do it with medicaid. The other thing big time and theres been bipartisan support for this, is take on the pharmaceutical companies to bring the prices down. Nothing has been done on that. Thats why you see the spiralling cost of insulin and other common drugs. I lead the bill to unleash the power of 45 million seniors to negotiate better prices under medicare. That will make a big difference. The other thing, bringing in less expensive drugs from other countries. In minnesota, we can see canada from our porch. So i am able to see the cheaper prices, this is a bill that i had with senator mccain after we sadly lost him. Senator grassley has stepped in and we have that bill. Bernie and i did an amendment once at midnight on this concept and got 14 republican senators to vote for it. I think that there is support for doing that. It would put enormous leverage on prices and thats a good idea. You can put a cap tied to interna