Taking aim at President Trump,2020 presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar argued on Monday that the nation\u2019s farmers and workers shouldn\u2019t be used as \u201cpoker\u2026<\/b>
\nTaking aim at President Trump,2020 presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar argued on Monday that the nation\u2019s farmers and workers shouldn\u2019t be used as \u201cpoker chips\u201d in what she claimed the president was using \u201cin some kind of game from his bankrupt casinos.\u201d
The Democrat, a three-term senator from Minnesota \u2013 campaigning in New Hampshire \u2013 also was skeptical of Trump\u2019s claims that his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico forced America\u2019s southern neighbor to \u201cgreatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration.\u201d
The president on Friday waved off the tariff threat as he announced that the U. S. and Mexico had reached a deal to stem the flow of migrants. However, the deal has been increasingly questioned and criticized in the ensuing days.
TRUMP RAISES POSSIBLITY OF NEW TARIFFS ON MEXICO
Klobuchar was speaking at \u201cPolitics and Eggs,\u201d an event considered a must-stop on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
She pushed back against Trump, saying, \u201cWe find out in a headline in The New York Times that actually most of that agreement had been made before he tweeted out that he had gotten this miraculous save of an agreement in response to a crisis that he had created. So, call me skeptical about that claim.\u201d
And, repeating a line she first used on Sunday, she emphasized: \u201cI don\u2019t think the farmers of the Midwest and the workers of New Hampshire should be poker chips, which he appears to be using them in some kind of game from his bankrupt casinos.\u201d
While noting that \u201cyou\u2019ve got to do trade in a tough way\u201d and that she\u2019s \u201cnot against using tariffs in a targeted way,\u201d the senator added, \u201cThe answer is to work with our allies as a group to take this on, not to do everything alone.\u201d
TRUMP SLAMS NEW YORK TIMES STORY ON MEXICO DEAL
Trump on Monday called the Times report \u201cnonsense.\u201d
The president tweeted Monday that a \u201cvery important\u201d part of the agreement with Mexico would be \u201crevealed in the not too distant future.\u201d
And, in an interview Monday with CNBC, he touted, \u201cIf we didn\u2019t have tariffs we wouldn\u2019t have made a deal with Mexico.\u201d
\u201cThis is something the U. S. has been trying to get for over 20 years with Mexico. As soon as I put tariffs on the table it was done \u2014 it took two days,\u201d he emphasized.
Klobuchar was in New Hampshire \u2013 the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House \u2013 with just over two weeks to go until the first round of primary debates organized by the Democratic National Committee.
DNC UPS THRESHOLDS FOR UPCOMING 2020 PRIMARY DEBATES
With a historic two-dozen candidates running for the nomination, the DNC chose to limit the first two rounds to 10 candidates each night. While many of the lower-tier candidates have criticized the DNC\u2019s criteria to make the debate stage, Klobuchar is not among them.
The senator has reached both thresholds – one-percent polling in three qualifying surveys and contributions from 65,000 individuals.
\u201cYou know, I\u2019m OK with it,\u201d she said in an interview with Fox News and two New Hampshire news organizations, when asked about the DNC\u2019s criteria.
While noting that \u201cI do like to have open, free debates,\u201d Klobuchar argued that the field needed to be winnowed. She emphasized \u201cthat for voters, they\u2019ve got to start seeing at least 10 or 12 people, or however many it\u2019s going to be, because it\u2019s hard to make a decision when you have so many people in it.\u201d
Klobuchar, who served as county attorney for Hennepin County \u2013 Minnesota\u2019s most populous \u2013 before winning election to the U. S. Senate in 2006, earlier told a crowd in Concord that she\u2019s never lost an election.
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\u201cI have won every place, everywhere, and every time I have run and that includes against people who were expected to win,\u201d she said, repeating a line she\u2019d used before.
She even spotlighted that she won her election for secretary of her high school student council, where she joked that \u201cmy slogan was \u2018all the way with Amy K,\u2019 which I\u2019m not going to be using anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n