November 20, 2019

The Debate Gave Amy Klobuchar a Chance to Talk Gender Disparity, and She Ran With It

“I govern both with my head, and my heart, and if you think a women can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.”

John Bazemore/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

During the Democrat debate on Wednesday night, presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar brought gender disparity in politics to the center stage. When Andrea Mitchell asked Klobuchar to clarify a statement she’d made about the heightened standards women face to achieve the same accomplishments as men, she didn’t mince her words. “What I said was true. Women are held to a higher standard, otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite woman president.”

In the quote Klobuchar was asked to clarify, she had insinuated that women with equivalent experience to Pete Buttigieg—whose political experience tops out at mayor of the 100,000-person South Bend, Indiana—wouldn’t make it to the debate stage. After Klobuchar reassured Buttigieg, to her immediate left, that it wasn’t a swipe at him, she elaborated while he watched on sheepishly. “I think any working woman out there, women at home, know exactly what I mean. We have to work harder, and that’s a fact.”

Then, shifting gears, Klobuchar went on to pitch herself as the candidate to beat, institutional shackles or not: “I think what matters is if you’re smart, competent, and if you get things done,” she said. “I govern both with my head, and my heart, and if you think a women can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate