Amy Klobuchar defends her staff treatment, says toughness needed when dealing with Putin

[brooklynite]

CNN

Sen. Amy Klobuchar's nascent presidential campaign has been dogged by allegations that the Minnesota Democrat mistreated her Senate staff. In an interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow on Thursday, the senator admitted she "can always do better" with her staff, but said her toughness would be an asset on the world stage.

Klobuchar cast the reports of staff mistreatment as a positive for her ability to operative on the international stage as president, namely when dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If you are a boss, you have to have high standards, and that is what I have always had. And that doesn't mean it's a popularity contest all the time," she said. "And so I've had high standards for myself, high standards for our staff, and mostly I'm going to have high standards for the country."

She added: "One can always do better, and that means you want to be sure that you are listening to people if they felt that something was unfair, or they felt bad about something. But I still think that you have to demand good product. When you're out there on the world stage and dealing with people like Vladimir Putin, yeah, you want someone who's tough. You want someone that demands the answers and that's going to get things done, and that's what I've done my whole life."

[jberryhill]

1. The trick is getting Putin on her staff

[Zorro]

2. That dog won't hunt

[empedocles]

3. These primary maneuvers

[GemDigger]

4. Huh? Is this a training thing for her?

I mistreat my help to make me meaner for Putin? Do you beat your kids too?

[Awsi Dooger]

5. I happened to see the segment on CNN an hour or so ago

That staff treatment stuff was held for the end and was hardly the focal point of the interview. The early focus was on Republican senators praising Klobuchar, while they don't hold the same view of other Democrats. Klobuchar handled it perfectly and said she wasn't exactly going to use the GOP praise in primary commercials but she wouldn't run away from it either, since it's important to have friends on the other side toward building effective consensus. Amy talked about all the bills she has sponsored and passed.

Another segment was on Trump's nicknames and that so far he has called her only Snow Lady, or something like that. Amy said it was important to use tactics like humor in rebuttal. She referenced the response she used after Snow Lady.

Overall it was exactly the warm charismatic version that would play so well in America's living rooms. I realize we are determined to devalue those qualities in favor of bulldog tendencies that would quickly plunge the favorable rating, once on display. Not everybody is a competent handicapper.

I guess I should have realized the staff treatment stuff would earn the headline despite the placement. The interviewer didn't seem comfortable with the question and Amy's response was okay but not ideal. She did eventually rattle off the list of so many top staff members who have been with her for years and sometimes more than a decade. That comes across as obvious distribution to me but maybe she should lead off with it when the topic is posed. Deflective examples are always more popular than they should be.

[USALiberal]

6. When she says "I never threw objects at my staff" I'll believe her. Nt