February 19, 2020 • 58 mins
Katy, Cody and Robert have a conversation about everything you need to know about Amy Klobuchar.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything. So don't don't hi. Hello, everyone, welcome back, bye,
(00:25):
And that's been our episode now it hasn't hi. I'm
Katie Stole, I'm Cody Johnson Johnson you and I am
also a host of this podcast. That's right, you are
Worst Year Ever? Welcome back? Yeah, that seems right. Want
of us go back to the Worst Year ever? Um? Alright,
(00:49):
So here's the deal. We started this shows you love deals,
making them deals, making fun of them, making fun of people.
So we figured it was time to get back to
covering some of the candidates that we have not covered yet.
So this week the ones who haven't dropped out to Yes,
who haven't dropped out? R I p to all of
(01:12):
y'all who were now are no more rest in politics,
pics politics. So anyway, we're long past overdue for a
deep dive into Amy Cloba shark club Shark of the deal,
Cloba shart of the deal. Uh and you know, after
her inability to name the president of Mexico during an
interview with I Believe Telemundo last week. Okay, but how
(01:36):
could she have possibly known that? In an interview with
Telemundo about US Mexican relations. She would need to know
the name of Mexico's president. Could no way to anticipate that? Yeah,
no way, no way to what a got you question? Well? Right,
and to be fair, like she made it clear in
the interview, she knows that Mexico has a president, right,
It's not like she's completely in the dark where he
(01:59):
was elected all the way over there. Um, Anyway, we
decided that's what we're going to do today. Amy Club, Yeah,
or or as I call her, Amy Klobash. Are you
kidding me? People still support her? Yeah? I like, I
like to introduce her. It's Amy. It's pretty good from
(02:22):
the stuff. No, Sophie's not having, shaking her head, mouth
a gape, unpressed, unimpressed. Um. Also, I mentioned last week
that I am moving and I am U, so I
kind of stepped back and let the boys do most
of the heavy lifting on this one. Um. But I'm
gonna start us off by talking a little bit about
Amy's early life now with Warren. It felt really important
(02:42):
to go over that stuff since so much of her
early life has informed her platform, and her story is
an integral part of her campaign. Less So with Amy
but it's still a good jumping off point getting to
know her. She's born in Plymouth, Minnesota, sixty Her mom
was a second grade teacher. Dad was an author, sportswriter, columnist, etcetera.
(03:05):
Her parents divorced when Amy was fifteen, and she had
a really bad relationship with her dad. He was an
alcoholic um and she really didn't talk with her father
for a long time. I guess where that famous Kavanaugh
exchange comes from. Okay, drinking is one thing, but the
concern is about truthfulness. And in your written testimony you
(03:27):
said sometimes you had too many drinks. Was there ever
a time when you drank so much that you couldn't
remember what happened or part of what happened the night before?
I know I remember what happened, and I think you've
probably had beer center And so you're saying, there's never
been a case where you drank so much that you
(03:49):
didn't remember what happened the night before. A part of
what happened you're asking about, yeah, blackout. I don't know.
Have you. Could you answer the question, judge and just
to you, that's not happened? Is that your answer? Yeah?
And I'm curious if you have. I have no drinking problem.
(04:10):
Thank you. I'm just gonna say, uh. Started my last
colloquy by saying to Santah Colombert jar how much I
respect her and respected what she did the last hearing.
And she asked me a question at the end that
I responded by asking her a question I didn't. Sorry
I did that. This is a tough process. I'm sorry
about that. I appreciate that. I would like to Addwin,
you have a parent that's alcoholic, you're pretty careful about
(04:33):
drinking and um. And the second thing is, I was
truly just trying to get to the bottom of the
facts and the evidence. And I again believe we do
that by opening up the FBI investigation and I would
call it a background check instead of investigation. Thank you.
But then she finally reconnected with her father after he
got sober in the nineties. Um, okay, that's a little
(04:55):
bit about her backstory. Again, I don't know how that
informs much of her platform, except for how she questioned Kavanaugh.
And she's a tough cookie. Amy is a graduate of
Yale University and then the University of Chicago Law School.
After law school, Klobasher worked as a corporate lawyer. Uh.
She was a partner at the Minnesota law firms Dorsey
(05:17):
and Whitney and then Gray Plant Mooty, where she specialized
in quote regulatory work in telecommunications law. Okay, um, this
is interesting. Before seeking public office, her first little dip
into politics came after she gave birth. Um, I guess
when her daughter was born. She was forced to leave
(05:38):
the hospital twenty four hours later, even though her daughter
had been born with this rare disorder that prevented her
from swallowing. And so when they got kicked out and
then it was like an insurance thing. Yeah, I mean
there's just no protection for for young mothers in these situations. Uh.
But anyway, that experience led her to appear before the
(05:58):
Minnesota state legislat her and advocating for a bill that
would guarantee new mothers a forty eight our hospital stay. Uh.
And then Minnesota passed the bill and later on Bill
Clinton made that policy federal law. So that's pretty cool. Um.
Amy talks a lot about she hasn't lost her race,
(06:19):
but she did enter a race and then drop out
of a race once. Uh for the Hennepin County Attorney.
But anyway, she dropped out because the the guy that
had been the attorney decided he was going to run
also into two. She won, but she ran unopposed. So
there's that. Um. But then eventually Klobaschar was elected Hennepin
(06:42):
County attorney was reelected in two thousand two with no opposition.
Uh Hannepin is Minnesota's most uh populated county and she
was responsible for all of its criminal prosecution. Um. And
you guys might be surprised about this, but her time
was the public attorney is riddled with the how do
(07:03):
I put this controversies that we should probably talk about troverses? Now,
are you telling me that a Democratic candidate and the
election has a bunch of controversies attached to their past? No, no, no, no,
it's a club traverses club troversies. While we're on that subject,
(07:24):
are our research document for this is called clobu notes,
and I really think it should have been no boot chards.
Oh that's pretty good too, Continue Katie. UM, I think
Cody is going to go into this a little bit more.
But one thing about her time is as the attorney
(07:45):
in that county was that her office didn't prosecute any
of the more than two dozen killings by police officers
in the county in the eight years that she was
in charge. So that's cool. Again, Cody preps some of this.
I'm gonna leave that to him to cover, but real quick,
I want to mention this as well. Um. A report
from the Associated Press last month revealed, among other things,
(08:06):
that a big case she had prosecuted and camtaigned on
as showing her to be tough on crime. Uh, it
turns out it has several very alarming problems. Uh. This
is the case of my On Burrel, a black teenager
who was accused of fatally shooting an eleven year old girl,
and Amy helped land him a life sentence. Um. So
(08:27):
this AP report reveals that apparently the police had offered
witness his money in exchange for names, had failed to
pursue leads that could have exonerated. Uh, people that they
railroaded for information at the time has since recanted. You
know that kind of thing. Um. This is a quote
from the AP. The case relied heavily on a teen
rival of Burrels, who gave conflicting accounts when identifying the shooter,
(08:49):
who was largely obscured behind a wall twenty feet away.
There was no gun, fingerprints or DNA alibis were never
seriously pursued. Key evidence has gone missing was never obtained,
including a convenience stur surveilance tape that Barrel and others
say would have cleared him. Another quote his code offendance
to me, while meanwhile, have admitted their part and Tasha's death.
(09:10):
Barrell they say was not even there. Also, apparently one
of the other code offendants, the people that they you know,
gotten into say that they were there and gave testimony,
was a man named Ike Tyson, not Mike prison. But yeah,
because the next line is really important. I has since
(09:32):
insisted he was the guy that shot the girl, but
the police refused to believe him because he had a
contradictory statement at the beginning. You know, he was trying
to not get in trouble um and now he feels
guilty about having killed an innocent girl and sending an
innocent man to prison for life. Quote I already shot
an innocent girl. Now an inscent guy at the time
he was a kid, is locked up for something he
(09:53):
didn't do. So it's like I'm carrying two Burdens end
of quote, Amy put that guy in prison. U she
prosecuted his I guess there was two trials. Um, she
prosecuted the first one, not the second one, but the
first one got him life in prison. I mean some
of this comes down to the fact that, like, you
(10:14):
really can't be a good person and a prosecutor in
our modern system. I can't think of any who don't
have something nightmarish somewhere in their background. Yeah, and yeah,
that's an issue. That's that's that's that's not a normal
level of bad it is, but yes, really bad example. Um.
(10:38):
She Her campaign was was asked for comment the case recently,
and a spokesperson said, uh, Burrell was tried and convicted
of Taisha's murder twice. The second trial occurred when Klobishar
was no longer the Hennepin County attorney. If there was
new evidence, it should be immediately reviewed by the court.
You know, Amy klobish shart of talking around the issue,
(11:01):
clb amy clous sure you going to address the actual point.
Amy Clobus shouldn't have done that, um as the Nope. Anyway, UM,
So that was a story I really wanted to share Cody.
I know that you've got some more information about her
time is as the attorney. Yeah, this is county attorney. Yeah.
(11:24):
This is a good contrast to UM and the police
shootings and stuff. UM. So yeah, Amy pal Montgomery Cloba
char was the Hennepin County Attorney UM, as a Katie described.
She was also UM the president of the Minnesota County
Attorney's Association from November two thousand two, two thousand three. UM,
(11:45):
as outlined in the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees Union letter. Her employees say that she treated
them poorly during her tenure UM, which we're going to
get into, but I just wanted to make a note
of that during pops up, how often it pops up
exactly as County Attorney Amy prosecuted the possession of kat
(12:06):
k h a t she so she prosecuted this possession
of among Somali immigrants coats A. It's a stimulant. It's
similar to chewing tobacco. UM. And we'll actually come back
to that in a moment, But first, a brief bit
about Minnesota, specifically Minneapolis St. Paul, the Twin Cities area.
(12:30):
It has the largest Somali diaspora population in America. It's
more than seventy four thousand people. The immigration started in
the eighties. It increased in the nineties due to the
Somalian Civil War. UM. An example of one of those
more than seventy four thousand people is Somalian refugee and
US Congress when elan Omar, Her district makes up eastern
(12:51):
Hannepin County. UM checking moved there just a few years
before Clobachar became county attorney. U s a little context
about the area the population. That's they're a lot of refugees.
UM and uh, a little Congress buddy, Hi to Congress Congress. Yeah,
I'm sure they're very much aligned. Been really really aligned
in friends and stuff. UM. Anyway, So back to cot.
(13:13):
It is a stimulant similar to chewing tobacco. It has
effects described as a mild high or buzz, similar to
strong coffee. It can Yeah, it can potentially create psychological
dependency and has some minor health risks like sleep problems,
increased blood pressure. UM. Again, like coffee, I would say
it's less toxic for you than chewing tobacco, worse for
(13:36):
you than coffee, Yes, that that like that if you're
like looking to place it roughly, it's strong's strong coffee. Um.
The World Health Organization it's a little carcinogenic. Is kind
of the big difference between it and coffee. Like there
are some consequences, but it's not really you'd be a
very silly person to make a big deal out of it.
You would be very silly to make a big deal
about it. Exactly, it's possible, and it made a big
(14:00):
deal of this, Umsachar, thank you. Yeah. So the Pro
level Organization it doesn't consider it like seriously addictive or harmful. Um,
it's actually, uh to your point, Robert, it's actually less
addictive than tobacco or alcohol yea. Um. But despite all
of this, it is illegal in the United States. Um.
(14:21):
It's also illegal in Canada, Germany, and the UK. We
kind of come back to the ukanan bit Um. It's
legal and sold in many other countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Somalia,
though it is some level of controlled substance in most
European countries. Like I said, UK, they made it illegal
in two thousand and fourteen. Um. And we're getting a
(14:42):
little far away from any but I think this this,
I think this story is interesting. So there was there
was a bit of a moral panic about COT in
the UK in the early two thousand's. Specifically, there was
concerned about its use by immigrants from Somalia, Yemen in Ethiopia. UM.
There wasn't a lot of evidence of its dangers, so
(15:03):
the Home Office commissioned a bunch of research, which was
presented in a report to the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs, which decided to keep it legal on
account of it being basically fine, UH, noting that the
use was moderate and it was largely used as a
social activity. But a couple of years later UM the
Conservative Party announced it would quote tackle unacceptable cultural practices
(15:26):
UM and that included the use of cost So in
the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs released another
report about how there was no evidence that it was
harmful or addictive or directly linked to crime. Six months later,
Teresa May banned it. So just some context here caught.
If you're really looking at where it's legal or illegal,
(15:50):
it's a cultural thing, it's a social activity. UH. Attorney
Renee Clemenson noted during some of this that the county
has spent so much time, money, and effort on what
is a social gathering in the Somali community, like meeting
for a cup of coffee. It's a cultural thing. Um.
So back to Minneapolis when Amy Klobuchar became the county
(16:13):
attorney and Elahan Omar, I don't know, she's learning to
drive at the time, something like that, Amy klobush attorney.
The important thing is that we never give up with this,
but not ever. Yeah, you keep me give up absolute,
charred as absolutely, I mean, come on, alright, so so
(16:40):
uh uh. Co prosecutions were rare at the time when
Amy started, um, because it wasn't considered much of a
problem as we've discussed, because it's fine, because it's because
it's fine. But Klobuchar decided to prosecute people using COT
and she defended her aggressive enforcement by saying, this is
an a legal drug in our country. It is our
(17:02):
job to prosecute the cases. Um, this just seems so
much like it reminds me of like the Commalas stuff too.
It's like picking something that is popular enough that you
can say, look, I'm tough on crime. Look I'm tough.
I'm a i'm a I'm a immigrant crime too. Yeah. Though,
although she did claim that cod is not limited to
(17:24):
use by Somali's um, which I don't know if you've
been listening, but it's mostly used by them, um, which
means that they're the most likely to be prosecuted for it.
Her other justification was that cod can cause paranoia and
hallucinations um, which is true for those genetically predisposed to psychosis,
which is true of those who use too much caffeine. Also,
(17:47):
it's the same thing with like marijuana, or with sila
seben mushrooms. It's all almost any kind of of of
like psychoactive chemical. If you are predisposed to psychosis or
to like schizophrenia, it's potentially possible that that could trigger
it um. Which it's the same thing with like alcohol.
If you are predisposed to alcoholism, having a beer could
(18:10):
trigger a horrible addiction in you and other people. It
triggers a neat super Bowl party like It's exactly yeah,
this is yeah. Okay, I'll tell us more about what
Amy did. So why when she started prosecuting all these cases? Okay,
sled Hey, but Cloba Chase has nailed it. Okay, yeah,
(18:32):
you're to go, Robert, you're doing your club with chart
um part okay, yeah, okay, the top cop as it were, UM,
deciding to prosecute this specifically. UM. And this is what
I think is sort of kind of what you were
getting at Katie. UM. It's their choice. Uh. Even Like so,
(18:56):
just a month ago, prosecutors into Northern Virginia County, He's
announced they wouldn't be prosecuting marijuana possession. Um. According to
the Jeff Bezos Washington Post. UH, the prosecutors Discano and
Degani Tafti said pot possession prosecutions do little to protect
public safety, disproportionately fall on people of color, saddle defendants
(19:17):
with damaging convictions, and drain resources that can better be
spent on more serious crimes. Fair point about pot prosecutions.
So I guess my point is that Amy went out
of her way to prosecute the Somali immigrant community for
the cultural use of an ostensibly harmless coffee leaf that's
legal in their native country. UM. And incidentally, those Somali
(19:40):
immigrants would be subject to deportation for these convictions of
using that ostensibly harmless coffee leaf. UM. Completely related in
checking out the various ratings she's gotten from out of
secure advocacy groups for her her record. Um, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws gave Amy Klobuchar
a D. So if you like pot, you're not allowed
(20:01):
to vote for shot exactly nailed it. So back to
the russ secutor. Yeah, it's just also nailed it. Everyone's nailing.
So you know how she decided to prosecute caught usage,
which he did not need to do, and it had
(20:22):
this the effects that we've all we've talked about. Um,
but don't worry. She's not all work. You know, she's cool,
she's fun. Sometimes she decides not to prosecute things like
those police killings and the brutality that you mentioned earlier.
She chose to prosecute some recreational drug use, primarily of
(20:43):
a racial nature, but she also chose not to prosecute
police violence. So really it equals out balance. Um, that's
why she's she's the moderates as Canada. You know, she's
got the balance, got both both sides. Yeah, that's very
moderate her. Yeah. Um so yeah, I just sort of
(21:03):
wanted to uh make that contrast. We don't need to
get into a lot of the police shootings. Um she
I mean there were a lot of them. Uh. This
one case, Tahitia Williams Brewer apparently begged Clobar to prosecute
a case in which a police officer killed her black
teenage son in two thousand and four. She wrote to
clobachar quote, the grand jury is a way of hiding
(21:26):
that the prosecutor is not giving the full information of
guilt to the grand jury. I want this process out
in the open where everyone can observe it and make
sure it is fair to my son. She didn't respond
to this, uh this letter, um, and all of the
cases um, the twenty civilian deaths, all of them went
to a grand jury, um, which which is yeah, usually
(21:51):
done to sort of hide this sort of information and
uh not take accountability for that. So I just wanted
to make that contrast where she's making this decision like
going out of her way to prosecute this like social thing. Um,
it's well done. I think you did it, a great job.
Thank you. Um, we're gonna take a quick break because
we got it. He has given us the sign Um
(22:14):
it's all her fault. I love it when Sophie gives
us the sign butt fingers. Um. But then we're gonna
be back and talk more about Amy clobe Bush. Somebody
fill it in for me. Amy Clobush should buy products
and services everything, so don't don't and we're Cloe Bush back.
(22:49):
Did you just leave us back? Yeah? I don't know.
That's so much better. I'm such a fraud. I'm sorry.
I'll go back to just be We're clubs back. Oh god,
like I wanted to drop out so we can stop this. Well, no,
(23:12):
not to show my bias or anything, but can you
just continue with what you've prepared? I've done? Are you
are Robert? What do you got? Oh? My god? Okay,
So I have a little essay I wrote um with
the working title of Amy Klobachar and Joseph Stalin Who
(23:35):
was meaner? Um? And the answer is Joseph Stalin because
of all of the all of the but Amy Klobachar
is also pretty pretty mean to her employees too. Um.
So I'm gathering that that's what I wrote four pages about.
So uh, I think we should start with with with
with a little bit of objective analysis, because a lot
(23:58):
of what we're getting into a subjective you know, people
have nobody's liked by everybody, Right, everybody's get someone who
dislikes them. You have a bunch of employees, some of
them are gonna dislike you. We're gonna be going over
a bunch of that here. There's always the risk. Yes,
I mean probably, but we know that's not true, not
if you were in Congress. All right, I'm sorry, Well,
(24:21):
any anybody who continue, we're going to like, we're gonna
be getting into like some some subjective reports by people
on Amy's behavior, which are always there's the potential for bias.
So I want to start with kind of some objective
analysis of how employees react to her. UM and there's
a there's an online portal called leges Storm that that
(24:43):
tracks Capitol Hills workforce UM and they have a feature
called Worst Bosses which shows the members of the House
inciate with the highest turnover rate UM and the organization
use salary data from two thousand and one to two
that in sixteen to figure out ten offices in each
chamber with the highest annual turnover rate. And they didn't
just do a direct translation. They have a formula that
(25:04):
sort of ways like the departure of senior officials higher
than lower level staff. Um, and like it excludes leadership
offices with frequent turnover, so they try to like anticipate
for just sort of how politics works. Some positions, everyone's
got high turnover, so you don't want that to count
against somebody. So it seems like they have a pretty
reasonable kind of like algorithm for accounting who runs through
(25:26):
employees the fastest. And in the Senate, Amy has the
highest rate of turnover in office. It's thirty six percent
compared to thirty percent for Maria Cantwell, the number two
worst turnover in the Senate. UM. Now, high turnover doesn't
necessarily mean someone's a bad boss or runs a bad office.
It could be as signed that she highest particularly ambitious
(25:47):
employees or that they get regularly headhunted for other work. UM.
So we have to dig a little bit deeper before
we declare Amy a bad boss. And thankfully three different
major news organizations have dug into the and there's reports
from The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and the humping Huffington Post. YEA, yeah,
(26:10):
that was that was a cloba chuck up of my dammit. Okay,
I'm just gonna talk about Amy as a boss. Uh,
there's a I'm gonna quote from an anecdote. The New
York Times related about her from two eight quote. An
aid joining her on a trip to South Carolina in
two thousand and eight had procured a salad for his
(26:31):
boss while hauling their bags through an airport terminal, but
once on board, he delivered the grim news he had
fumbled the plastic eating utensils before reaching the gate, and
the crew did not have any forks on such a
short flight. What happened next was typical. Miss Klobuchar berated
her aid instantly for the slip up. What happened after
that was not. She pulled a comb from her bag
and began eating the salad with it, according to four
(26:52):
people familiar with the episode, Then she handed the comb
to her staff member with the directive clean it. You
would have eaten it with a comb off a club
acomb if I was yeah, that's what they're called a
combat it's a new utensil. If I was desperate enough,
the clean also, it is weird. It's weird. Maybe I wouldn't.
(27:15):
I would have accepted a spoon. It's a little weird.
Certainly not damning, but a little weird. A little weird,
Just a little weird. Yeah. And she went on to
joke about this moment with her fellow Democratic legislators in
a speech later. Um and it may seem like one
odd anecdote out of the context of her life. Um,
if it didn't fit in perfectly with everything else about
her history as a person in power. In a two
(27:35):
thousand nineteen article based on interviews with dozens of her
former employees, BuzzFeed found quote the Minnesota Democrat ran a
workplace controlled by fear, anger, and shame, according to interviews
with eight former staffers, one that many employees found intolerably cruel.
She demeaned and braided her staff almost daily, subjecting them
to bouts of explosive rage and regular humiliation within the office.
(27:56):
One particular trigger for Amy club a chair seems to
be when her employees do things that she feels reflect
badly on her. At one point, frustrated with the lame
Twitter jokes her aids were writing her, she told them,
we are becoming a joke, and it is making us
a joke. When aids did think she considered mistakes, Miss
Clobuchar would tell them that they were damaging her career.
On one occasion, she told an aid that this aid
(28:16):
was quote ruining my marriage, presumably because Senator Klobuchar was
was going to have to work over time at the
office to correct a mistake. Amy's former staff or say
she also had a habit of delivering cruel remarks just
out of the blue, at one point telling a team member,
I would trade three of you for a bottle of water. Wow. Cool, Yeah,
and sorry, I said dozens of there's dozens of different
(28:38):
employees interviewed between all three articles Buzze eight. But yeah, charming,
it's not it's not great, right, it's it's this is
not great stuff for a person to do to human
beings around them. Yeah, there's a there's a element of
this that, uh, it's we it's weird. I even see
I've seen articles talk about this and be like, well,
(28:59):
she's the problem is it she hires bad people like
like it's their fault. Um, And there's just like the
sense um And I'm not gonna be like it's trump stuff,
but like if your boss is this way and cruel,
uh and demeaning to you, that trickles down like that
affects every Yeah, I maybe we haven't all had terrible bosses,
(29:23):
but a lot of us have. We know what that
does to people, right, Well, then it just creates that
culture we're like, okay, well, like the people under underneath me,
I'm going to treat them this way. Um, And I
don't know that's not great? Yeah, I mean I I
don't want to like, I don't want to like spill
anything here. But I have a boss who, very unreasonably,
(29:43):
UM gets angry when I, for example, try to hit
cans of compressed air with a machete. Um. And you
know I I do feel that that is Um, that's
a kind of assault emotionally on me. Shut the fun up. Wow,
I will hit you with a clipboard. See see your
(30:04):
cloba charing. You're right now, Cody and kidie, you can
do no wrong doing. Take it back. You guys are awesome.
Up everybody can hear feel like a pawn right now? Um?
What else you got about? Okay? So, former aids told
The New York Times that it was de rigor for
(30:25):
departing employees to save particularly damning emails from Amy Klobuchar
in case they needed evidence of her behavior to defend
themselves from being bad mouthed. Later, on amy emails. Examples
of these include, according to the New York Times, quote
in twenty years in politics, I have never seen worst prep,
Miss Clobachar said in one email, displeased at how a
(30:46):
political event had been handled. This is hands down the
worst thing you have ever given me, she wrote another,
questioning her team's grasp of policy is she rejected its slop.
This is the worst press staff I have ever had,
she announced once to employees, According to an aid press
and this was effectively a rite of passage. The aid
said the Senator had plainly said the same about both
predecessors and successors in the office. M hmm, Yeah, it's inspiring.
(31:12):
And it's also like, you know, um when when you
talk about like, um, sort of why the Trump administration,
why like so much damning ship keeps like leaking out
of the administrations because he's kind of fundamentally incapable of
maintaining of inspiring loyalty his employees because he like fox
(31:32):
them over and attacks them. Yeah, he demands loyalty and
then stabs in the back. This is our answer to
fixing that in the White House. Yes, yes, yeah, this
is the This is like obviously I'm not trying to say,
like everyone should be like Barack Obama and George W. Bush,
because both of those presidents were either terrible or profoundly mediocre,
(31:56):
verging on terrible. Um and you know, respect, but both
were many who were capable of, like really inspiring a
lot of loyalty in their in their employees. And as
a result, you didn't see this kind of ship leak
out about about either White House. Um yeah, and like
knowing that, like I got to do this because yeah,
(32:19):
we'll just wait for the next paragraph. Robert's going to read, Yeah,
read it now. Um, I don't know. Let's uh, you
guys want to think about what a good song American
Pie was before I start reading the next paragraph. Which
part which part of the first minute or the eighth
minute or all all fourteen minutes. When Amy was angry
(32:42):
at employees, she would frequently make them do her dishes
or handle other medio cleaning tasks for her as a
power move. She also had a reputation for yelling, throwing
papers and sometimes harder objects. I'll say this, having someone
do your dishes might not be a power move. It
might just be a lazy move. Okay, yeah, uh, we'll
see if you feel about that. On the it's possible.
(33:03):
A lot of this stuff, A lot of this stuff, no, no, no,
but like you're right, a lot of this stuff taken
out of context is not a dysfunctional or abuse of
office make um, but this context. Yeah. On at least
one occasion, she threw a binder at a subordinate and
hit him on the head. She claimed that it was
an accident, but like, that doesn't really make it better.
(33:24):
You can't accidentally throw a binder. You can't accidentally throw
a binder. You can accidentally she accidentally hit him. She
wasn't didn't mean to hit him, So she meant to
throw it in a rage, yes, but not to contract him. Okay,
so okay, so why did you get in the way
(33:44):
of my binder? That's exactly Most of the staffers who
talked to BuzzFeed insisted that this was not just a
case of Amy being a difficult boss. They described her
as uniquely unbearable. They're telling yeah, yeah, yeah, they're telling
(34:05):
of things. Makes her look like one of those people
who just explodes without warning over things like minear grammatical errors,
over the use of staples instead of paper clips, or
over the use of the word community in a press release.
This last one is part of a pattern she has
of hating very specific terms like absolutely straight shooting and supporter,
um yeah, support the grammar thing like I can respect that. Yeah,
(34:32):
I mean I can't respect blowing up. I don't know, No,
I can't respect. But at the same time, all my
grammar heads were like, yeah, if this is the only
thing she was kind of anal about, it would be
one thing. Again, It's kind of like the whole picture,
you know. It's like how you deal with it. It's
not just yes. Uh. Now. In fairness, there were quite
(34:53):
a few. There were at least a number of former
employees who spoke well of her and called Amy tough
but fair. One of them they sweating with an earpiece,
very fair. One of them told BuzzFeed quote, her job
wasn't to be my mentor and cheerleader. Her job was
to get shipped done from Minnesota. But BuzzFeed noted that
(35:14):
four other staffers all disagreed with this and claim that
Amy's behavior negatively impacted the quality of work produced in
her office. One of them said, quote, I'm not an
anxious person. I've worked for other tough bosses, but It's
hard to explain the anxiety that permeates the office. It
is an overwhelming sense of panic and not being able
to plan. You never knew what was going to come
at you. That compounds and it affects the workplace. Yeah,
(35:36):
I'm gonna say it again. It sounds like exactly what
we need to track. And there's always this difficulty when
you try to compare it to other presidents, where people
can be like, Okay, but look at all the other
terrible things those presidents did, and like, yeah, George W. Bush,
Barack Obama did some fucked up ship, but also like
they were a really relatively effective organizations within the context
(35:59):
of our political system. And if you want to get
shipped done, I want the next president to be better
than both of them by far, but I want them
to be an effective organizer of people. And all of
this points to Amy not being that. Um yeah, but
you know it is an effective organizer of people. What God,
sweet lady capitalism, the grand damn of exchanging money for
(36:25):
products and services. Perfect, She's perfect, ideal, lawless here together everything.
(36:47):
We're back. We're back, We're back. So what we're clock?
Char sorry, Clock, char, thank you, thank you, another AID
who was inner you expressly told BuzzFeed, I don't think
this is one of those situations where sexism is to blame.
This aid was also female, and they told BuzzFeed, if
(37:09):
it were a man doing these things, that story should
be written. And that is a common refrain among the
complaints you'll read about Amy. An awful lot of her
former employees don't just think she was mean. They think
her meanness is significant enough that voters desperately need to
know about it before they consider voting for her last
It's tough. It's tough because it's an an easy line
(37:34):
of complaint that can be skewed as being sexist, but
it's also sounds like a true thing, you know, and
so we have to be able to talk about it.
And that's coming from you here. Yeah, I'm not judgmental
of a mean you know. I believe a female boss
can be tough without like being criticized for its Sophie
(37:54):
regularly throws things at me. Um goes into rages with Machette.
You know. That's the difference. The only thing I throw
at you is love and respect, Robert, that's true, that's true.
And frustration sometimes and Um alright, disappointment Um. Last February,
the Huffington Post reported, based on multiple interviews, that back
(38:17):
in two thousand fifteen, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had
to sit down with Amy Clobuchar privately and tell her
to change her behavior towards her staff Um Amy clobal lecture,
schar lecture, Tom, Sorry, I didn't do it. No, you're perfect.
(38:37):
You're perfect, Katie. The Huffington Post reached out to Harry
Reid to ask him about this, and the write up
of his response is pretty hilarious. A spokesman for Reid
said the retired senator prefers not to discuss private conversations
he had with other senators. In this case, Read also
does not remember whether or not he had this discussion
with Globuchar. The spokesman said. Senator club Char is one
(39:00):
of the most brilliant, hardest working members of the Senate,
and I was glad to serve alongside her, said Read.
She's tireless when it comes to fighting for the people
of Minnesota and the country, and that's why she's such
a popular senator back home and among her colleagues. You'll
notice that this is not a denial. It's really not
a lot of words, but I prefer not to comment.
But also I don't remember. But also she's cool. But
(39:23):
also please don't tell her that I said any of
that now. The Huffington Post also reported on a leaked document.
They found an eight page memo written by several of
Cloba Char's aids during her first Senate run in two
thousand and six. And the whole memo is basically them
talking about how to manage their bosses temper. And I'm
(39:43):
going to read a quote from that, especially while in
the car during a busy day. If she is all
caps extremely upset about something, let her rant through it
all caps. Don't interrupt her unless all caps absolutely necessary,
and be careful when try to calm her down. Often
she needs just needs to talk things out in the
open and is not interested in other people's opinions. This
(40:06):
is something that you will become used to and adjust to.
It's just a note for the first time this happens,
so we need Yeah, yeah, that sounds that would be
fun um As a senator, Cloba chars paid parental leave
policy has attracted some attention to people familiar with it.
Told The New York Times that anyone going on paid
leave was required among return to spend three times as
(40:29):
many weeks in the office as they've been gone. Is
that that's not great? Yeah, employees who left without making
up this time we're required to pay back money they
paid leave. Question. Yeah, I have to note that when
questioned about this, by the time Senator clob Char's office
issued a flat denial. We offered twelve weeks of paid
(40:49):
maternity and paternity leave for our staff and have one
of the strongest paid leave policies in the Senate. That
a spokeswoman, Alana Ross, we've never made staff payback any
of their leave and will be changing that language in
the handbook. She declined to provide a copy of the
current policy is written. So it's hard to know like
what actually went down, because you're saying, like there's some
language there that at least made people think they had
(41:10):
to pay back any of their leave, and you won't
show it. So I feel like you're being weasily. But
it seems like a terrible political choice the woman and
have I mean for anybody to have that policy, but
especially for mother herself and a Democrat. Yeah, the most
(41:33):
important thing to understand about the allegations of meanness on
behalf of amyklobchar is that these these allegations are not
opportunistic attacks on a presidential candidate. Numerous individuals, dozens and
dozens of people at this point have made the same,
very consistent claims about Amy as a boss for more
than ten years. So this is not just because she's
(41:53):
running for president. This goes back a long time. Yeah,
just we're about to talk about that. In two thousand
and six, Amy was the county attorney for Hinnipen County, Minnesota.
When she decided to leave that job to run for Senate.
The local chapter of the union that represented her employees,
(42:15):
the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wrote
a letter to the union leadership begging them not to
endorse Amy for the Senate. The letter was signed by
the president of the local chapter and contains reports from
a number of members. It claims that Amy showed disdain
for her employees, detigrating them publicly and privately, and refusing
to support wage adjustments. And I'm gonna quote from that
(42:36):
letter now. The strong feelings of our membership compelled the
executive board of Local two nine three eight to write
you regarding asked me as the union's contemplated endorsement of
a candidate for the United States Senate. Our local represents
the attorneys and legal professionals in the Hinnipen Counties Office
who have worked under Canon at enemy Cloba Char for
seven years. Thus, we are in the unique position of
providing you with the most comprehensive information necessary to judge
(42:58):
Miss Clobachar's perform its on the issues Jermaine to our organization.
Four years ago, this local council fourteen to withhold the
endorsement from Amy Klobuchar. This request was ignored. We do
not want that to happen again. The purpose of this
letter is to tell you why Miss Klobuchar continues to
be wholly undeserving of afsme's endorsement. Throughout her tenure as
Hennepin County Attorney, Amy Clobachar has demonstrated her disdain for
(43:20):
the very employees that have placed her in the position
to run for the office she now seeks. So it's rough, yeah, yeah,
that seems consistent with and I'm You're not done. No,
Because the letter claims that Klobuchar created a hostile work
environment and showed favoritism and her hiring practices. It claims
(43:41):
that when Amy when Amy wound up in conflict with
the union, she convinced several employees to quit and then
rehired them as independent contractors order to reduce union membership.
On at least one occasion, she mocked union members for
seeking a wage adjustment to bring them in line with
a neighboring jurisdiction. When union leaders asked about whether or
not she would support a wage adjustment given that she'd
given new employees from her former law firm better starting
(44:03):
salaries and the top paid non supervisory attorneys in her
county office, she dismissed the comparison by claiming that the
county employees were not competent enough to work at her
former for former firm. Most damningly, the letter claims that
Miss Clobuchar regularly took credit for the accomplishments of the
subordinate she denigrated and insulted. Quote. The fact that Miss
Clobuchar holds so little regard for her employees has not
(44:25):
stopped her from taking credit for their work. She has
used the publicity from the very success from the many
successfully prosecuted criminal cases. To give the public the false
impression that she was actively involved in those cases, she
was not. She presents herself as a dedicated public servant,
acutely concerned with the public safety, when her only dedication
is to her own self promotion. She sounds awful. She
(44:49):
sounds awful. Yeah, and again that's that's clearly no one
is trying to stop her from running for president with
that report. It is from fourteen years ago. Right, Um,
you know, I got one last thing. We're not even done. Like,
have either of you guys watched the TV show veep
(45:09):
YEA great show, great show. One of the characters and
I'm I always faced on her name the blonde lady
who is aide to the vice president. The show is
about um, a woman who's like the vice president and
then the President of the United States placed by a
Julia Louis dreyfuss Um. And she's she's a bad person
and a bad politician. Um. And it's like about a
(45:31):
dysfunctional It's like, it's this is how works everyone's I have.
I have been told by multiple Republican and Democrats who
have worked on congressional campus, worked in congressional offices, senatorial offices, UM,
and other like like federal level political offices as well
(45:53):
as gubernatorial offices like like. More than a dozen people
at this point that it is the only show that
accurately describes what it's like to work in American politics. UM.
In that show, there is a moment where the character Amy,
who was the aid to the vice president, mentions that
she had to dry shave Julia Louis Dreyfuss's character's legs
(46:14):
under the table during a cabinet meeting. UM. That is
based on a rumor about something Amy Klobuchar is supposed
supposedly actually did. She had an aid drive shave her
legs for her UM. This is completely unconfirmed, but it
is a very intrinched rumor in d C. Um Veep
writer David Mandel, when questioned about it, said this, it
(46:36):
is a well known rumor that we were told a
million times by millions of people. Any time I brought
her being Amy Klobuchar up with people in d C,
someone would tell us that story as a rumor, unconfirmed, unconfirmed.
The rum was the rumor that it was happening during
a meeting, or was it just like I don't think
(46:57):
it was happening. I thought that was that that was yeah, yeah, yeah,
um what I I just I do hope it. I mean,
I hope it isn't true, but I hope it's true.
I mean yeah, Um, I mean you know that that
would be one of those things. There's stuff that I
think would be a bad side about a president. Uh,
(47:17):
and there's stuff that like might not necessarily be Like
L B. J urinated on and he was a very
very productive president for all of his laws. So the
fact that Amy has like some weird power like that,
that might be, like, that's one of those things, like, yeah,
the kind of lunatics who become president. I could see
that being a reason someone's got the temperament for the job,
(47:39):
as opposed to the inability to have an office function,
which is not a sign of a good temperament. No
it isn't. Yeah. Um, let's talk a little bit more
with our remaining minutes, um about some club bush other things. Nice.
Oh my god, I feel like every single one of
these has been a home run. It's their only good.
(48:03):
Everybody listening really likes them. Um, that's for sure. Some
fun little things about for Club. Sure. Um, she voted
to confirm nearly two thirds of Trump's judges. Her climate
change policy gets US C minus. No, I'm sorry that
her climate change policy gets a C plus C plus
(48:26):
from the passing. It's passing. It's also the second lowest rating.
Not good. It's right above Bloomberg, right, yeah, Bloomberg. Um.
And we've already mentioned how she didn't know the name
of the president of Mexico this week. Um. Well, so
so her time in the Senate, we haven't talked about
(48:46):
much aside from her behind the scenes behavior. Um. These
I think votes are are important to recognize. Um that
she is like one of the big things that we
don't really talk about much, are these judges that are
all getting through. And two thirds is a lot. Um.
I'm comparing it with like, um, uh Kirsten jilla Brand
(49:08):
who dropped out quite a while ago. Um. And she's
her record is actually like pretty consistently like voting against
every single thing. Um. But so I want to talk
a little bit about Cloba Char's time in the Senate
because I was just looking at like her record, like, uh,
what has she passed? How many bills and things like that? Um?
And she of all the candidates, she has passed the
(49:29):
most um in her short time in Congress. Thirty four bills. Um,
I guess that's a lot that's a that's a clobusch
alata bills. Well, there's it's it's a lot um and uh,
you know he compared to someone like Warren and Sanders
both have seven things like that. Um. But I would
(49:51):
also point out that it's just interesting. So like you know,
she's have like, uh wrote a bill with Marco Ruby
about water pollution and they're just various, you know, random bills.
And I guess American treasure. American are are our friend
and national hero. Marco. She wrote a bill improving uh,
(50:17):
the call quality and rural areas. There's one modifies the
screening requirements for luggage coming from preclearance airports. It's called
the No Hassle Flying Act. Um. So I could see
how this is all something. I mean, you could look
at that and be like, look, she knows how to
work with people from all across the board. Also be
(50:40):
a good senator. That thing like if you're like as
a so, I guess if you're looking for a president
and you want a senator that has past bills, then
maybe APIs for you. But in looking into this, I
also just sort of glanced at like other bills people right, um,
(51:00):
and a lot of I think the criticism of Bernie
Sanders is there, like he hasn't passed much. We can
talk about amendments all day if we want, but like
the actual bills he is passed. Um. But if you
look at the bills that he has written that have
not been passed, because uh, you can go online, it
be like here all the bills that have been passed. Here,
all the bills have been written, they have not been enacted. Um.
(51:20):
Every single one of them is like, oh, yeah, we
shouldn't give money to people to pollute rivers. Oh yeah
we should. Like it's just a series of like, oh,
we shouldn't have raised the co payments for Medicare. That
should be no co payments. It's all this stuff that like, yeah,
I understand why the Senate didn't pass it. Um. And
I think it's a if you're which is like, which
(51:41):
is just in terms of like what you're looking for
in a president. Is it like, oh I passed a
bunch of bills, or like I have this vision for
what we should be passing. This is the point that
I'm really trying to make. But to our credit also,
I also looked into the number of missed votes uh
as her time as a senator. As we've talked about,
(52:02):
she's a hard worker. She's really hard on her staff,
so they get a lot of work done. Um. Of
all the candidates, she's missed the fewest, um, even during
the election, so like, uh, you know, when Hillary is running,
she missed the votes because she was running for president,
warrants missed a lot of votes. Recently, Santa has missed
(52:22):
a lot of votes. Uh. Even though Amy is still running,
she's not missed a lot of votes. She's the least. Um,
it's good for her. I guess at my point, I'm
trying to I'm trying to complimentary. Yeah, it sounded like
you were trying to make a no, no, no, um
good for not missing the votes that apparently are two
(52:44):
thirds supporting of Trump's judges. That part's less good. Maybe
maybe just skip the votes Amy, I don't know. I
guess we could say she did a good thing badly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
So I don't know, there's that. Before we wrapped this up,
we're just gonna talk a little bit about her empathy speech.
(53:06):
Her empathy speech. You know, you guys have a lot
to say about this empathy. Yeah, I mean well, I
mean she gave this speech at the last debate, which,
by the way, there's a debate tomorrow again. Unbelievable, just
unbelievab It's gonna be a blast anyway. Um, the last one,
her closing statement was about empathy and sort of taking
on Donald Trump and operating from a place of empathy,
(53:28):
and she teared up during it. Um, And I don't
disagree with that sentiment. I think empathy is important. Um
my issue, I guess we're bringing it up. If your
policies and ideas and vision don't embody that empathy, then
(53:48):
what's the fucking point? Um? If you're just is this
this performative like unity stuff instead of actually enacting empathetic policies,
then um, yeah, I don't know the point. That's how
I just described inherently what being a democrat or being
liberal is. I mean, there's a lot of differences between
that and conservatives, but like, I don't know, a liberal
(54:13):
democratic in theory anyway, we're supposed to be about empathy,
about caring for the weakest among us versus protecting the
rich and protecting self interest. Um and so like that
word I think is really important. But yeah, does she
actually reflect that policies and also in her actions. I
think we've if we reflect on her behind the scenes actions.
(54:36):
I don't know if she necessarily lives that speech. Um,
so yeah, I just wanted to talk about that because
I think it's it's not a bad thing to talk about.
But um, maybe she's not. Maybe she's not as empathet
against things to talk about it. I don't know. Well, there,
we did it. We talked about it. We did guys.
(55:00):
I feel really good getting that out of the well.
I'm I'm glad she's the front runner. I will say
that I did just see um an op ed on
the debt that I did just see an op ed
on the Daily Beast. As we were recording this, it's
suddenly obvious Klobascher is the Democrats best. It's happening. Who
(55:22):
which which which writer has their well on the pulse
of okay good, that's lewis S call. Take. Yes, Yes,
she's clearly, she's clearly the front runner. Not Joseph Robinette Biden,
(55:43):
the person who Uh was pulling well for the length
of most of the time the campaign. Not Bernie Sanders,
the person who is currently pulling the best, Not Pete
Buddha Gedge the close second, Not Elizabeth Warren who is
in third place. Um, but am Amy Klovish? Are you
(56:03):
kidding me? She's a strong fifth, strong fifth? This The
log line for this is wild. The Minnesota Senator is
the obvious consensus Joyce. She'll have some trouble with the
Bernie Brats, but who wouldn't. She's a winner. Yeah, it's
it's like how dash the fifth person to reach the
(56:28):
finish line is the obvious front run Well, because what
are you doing? It's like the how the tortoise in
the hair that the tortoise wins the race? Unbelievable. Um,
that's beautiful. Um the obvious choice. I like the use
of Bernie Brats. I didn't even go that far. Um. Alright, guys,
(56:52):
thanks for listening, sharing the journey with us. You're welcome.
I know you're talking about the people listening, but you're welcome.
You can check us out all fine at worst your
pod on Instagram and Twitter. That's it, no other social media,
nothing else. But there's merchandise. I guess, uh, we can
do that. Not Nope, Sophie is not um cool. I
(57:18):
guess we're gonna be done now, I guess we have
we're gonna be done. But I want all of our
listeners to go off into the world and know that
to us, we think all of you are hierroba Charskay,
you're all You're all strong fifths. Don't face your brand
new awesome the bottom. I'm so wanted to work that. Okay,
(57:43):
see you next week. Every Worst Your Ever is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything. So don't don't hi. Hello, everyone, welcome back, bye,
(00:25):
And that's been our episode now it hasn't hi. I'm
Katie Stole, I'm Cody Johnson Johnson you and I am
also a host of this podcast. That's right, you are
Worst Year Ever? Welcome back? Yeah, that seems right. Want
of us go back to the Worst Year ever? Um? Alright,
(00:49):
So here's the deal. We started this shows you love deals,
making them deals, making fun of them, making fun of people.
So we figured it was time to get back to
covering some of the candidates that we have not covered yet.
So this week the ones who haven't dropped out to Yes,
who haven't dropped out? R I p to all of
(01:12):
y'all who were now are no more rest in politics,
pics politics. So anyway, we're long past overdue for a
deep dive into Amy Cloba shark club Shark of the deal,
Cloba shart of the deal. Uh and you know, after
her inability to name the president of Mexico during an
interview with I Believe Telemundo last week. Okay, but how
(01:36):
could she have possibly known that? In an interview with
Telemundo about US Mexican relations. She would need to know
the name of Mexico's president. Could no way to anticipate that? Yeah,
no way, no way to what a got you question? Well? Right,
and to be fair, like she made it clear in
the interview, she knows that Mexico has a president, right,
It's not like she's completely in the dark where he
(01:59):
was elected all the way over there. Um, Anyway, we
decided that's what we're going to do today. Amy Club, Yeah,
or or as I call her, Amy Klobash. Are you
kidding me? People still support her? Yeah? I like, I
like to introduce her. It's Amy. It's pretty good from
(02:22):
the stuff. No, Sophie's not having, shaking her head, mouth
a gape, unpressed, unimpressed. Um. Also, I mentioned last week
that I am moving and I am U, so I
kind of stepped back and let the boys do most
of the heavy lifting on this one. Um. But I'm
gonna start us off by talking a little bit about
Amy's early life now with Warren. It felt really important
(02:42):
to go over that stuff since so much of her
early life has informed her platform, and her story is
an integral part of her campaign. Less So with Amy
but it's still a good jumping off point getting to
know her. She's born in Plymouth, Minnesota, sixty Her mom
was a second grade teacher. Dad was an author, sportswriter, columnist, etcetera.
(03:05):
Her parents divorced when Amy was fifteen, and she had
a really bad relationship with her dad. He was an
alcoholic um and she really didn't talk with her father
for a long time. I guess where that famous Kavanaugh
exchange comes from. Okay, drinking is one thing, but the
concern is about truthfulness. And in your written testimony you
(03:27):
said sometimes you had too many drinks. Was there ever
a time when you drank so much that you couldn't
remember what happened or part of what happened the night before?
I know I remember what happened, and I think you've
probably had beer center And so you're saying, there's never
been a case where you drank so much that you
(03:49):
didn't remember what happened the night before. A part of
what happened you're asking about, yeah, blackout. I don't know.
Have you. Could you answer the question, judge and just
to you, that's not happened? Is that your answer? Yeah?
And I'm curious if you have. I have no drinking problem.
(04:10):
Thank you. I'm just gonna say, uh. Started my last
colloquy by saying to Santah Colombert jar how much I
respect her and respected what she did the last hearing.
And she asked me a question at the end that
I responded by asking her a question I didn't. Sorry
I did that. This is a tough process. I'm sorry
about that. I appreciate that. I would like to Addwin,
you have a parent that's alcoholic, you're pretty careful about
(04:33):
drinking and um. And the second thing is, I was
truly just trying to get to the bottom of the
facts and the evidence. And I again believe we do
that by opening up the FBI investigation and I would
call it a background check instead of investigation. Thank you.
But then she finally reconnected with her father after he
got sober in the nineties. Um, okay, that's a little
(04:55):
bit about her backstory. Again, I don't know how that
informs much of her platform, except for how she questioned Kavanaugh.
And she's a tough cookie. Amy is a graduate of
Yale University and then the University of Chicago Law School.
After law school, Klobasher worked as a corporate lawyer. Uh.
She was a partner at the Minnesota law firms Dorsey
(05:17):
and Whitney and then Gray Plant Mooty, where she specialized
in quote regulatory work in telecommunications law. Okay, um, this
is interesting. Before seeking public office, her first little dip
into politics came after she gave birth. Um, I guess
when her daughter was born. She was forced to leave
(05:38):
the hospital twenty four hours later, even though her daughter
had been born with this rare disorder that prevented her
from swallowing. And so when they got kicked out and
then it was like an insurance thing. Yeah, I mean
there's just no protection for for young mothers in these situations. Uh.
But anyway, that experience led her to appear before the
(05:58):
Minnesota state legislat her and advocating for a bill that
would guarantee new mothers a forty eight our hospital stay. Uh.
And then Minnesota passed the bill and later on Bill
Clinton made that policy federal law. So that's pretty cool. Um.
Amy talks a lot about she hasn't lost her race,
(06:19):
but she did enter a race and then drop out
of a race once. Uh for the Hennepin County Attorney.
But anyway, she dropped out because the the guy that
had been the attorney decided he was going to run
also into two. She won, but she ran unopposed. So
there's that. Um. But then eventually Klobaschar was elected Hennepin
(06:42):
County attorney was reelected in two thousand two with no opposition.
Uh Hannepin is Minnesota's most uh populated county and she
was responsible for all of its criminal prosecution. Um. And
you guys might be surprised about this, but her time
was the public attorney is riddled with the how do
(07:03):
I put this controversies that we should probably talk about troverses? Now,
are you telling me that a Democratic candidate and the
election has a bunch of controversies attached to their past? No, no, no, no,
it's a club traverses club troversies. While we're on that subject,
(07:24):
are our research document for this is called clobu notes,
and I really think it should have been no boot chards.
Oh that's pretty good too, Continue Katie. UM, I think
Cody is going to go into this a little bit more.
But one thing about her time is as the attorney
(07:45):
in that county was that her office didn't prosecute any
of the more than two dozen killings by police officers
in the county in the eight years that she was
in charge. So that's cool. Again, Cody preps some of this.
I'm gonna leave that to him to cover, but real quick,
I want to mention this as well. Um. A report
from the Associated Press last month revealed, among other things,
(08:06):
that a big case she had prosecuted and camtaigned on
as showing her to be tough on crime. Uh, it
turns out it has several very alarming problems. Uh. This
is the case of my On Burrel, a black teenager
who was accused of fatally shooting an eleven year old girl,
and Amy helped land him a life sentence. Um. So
(08:27):
this AP report reveals that apparently the police had offered
witness his money in exchange for names, had failed to
pursue leads that could have exonerated. Uh, people that they
railroaded for information at the time has since recanted. You
know that kind of thing. Um. This is a quote
from the AP. The case relied heavily on a teen
rival of Burrels, who gave conflicting accounts when identifying the shooter,
(08:49):
who was largely obscured behind a wall twenty feet away.
There was no gun, fingerprints or DNA alibis were never
seriously pursued. Key evidence has gone missing was never obtained,
including a convenience stur surveilance tape that Barrel and others
say would have cleared him. Another quote his code offendance
to me, while meanwhile, have admitted their part and Tasha's death.
(09:10):
Barrell they say was not even there. Also, apparently one
of the other code offendants, the people that they you know,
gotten into say that they were there and gave testimony,
was a man named Ike Tyson, not Mike prison. But yeah,
because the next line is really important. I has since
(09:32):
insisted he was the guy that shot the girl, but
the police refused to believe him because he had a
contradictory statement at the beginning. You know, he was trying
to not get in trouble um and now he feels
guilty about having killed an innocent girl and sending an
innocent man to prison for life. Quote I already shot
an innocent girl. Now an inscent guy at the time
he was a kid, is locked up for something he
(09:53):
didn't do. So it's like I'm carrying two Burdens end
of quote, Amy put that guy in prison. U she
prosecuted his I guess there was two trials. Um, she
prosecuted the first one, not the second one, but the
first one got him life in prison. I mean some
of this comes down to the fact that, like, you
(10:14):
really can't be a good person and a prosecutor in
our modern system. I can't think of any who don't
have something nightmarish somewhere in their background. Yeah, and yeah,
that's an issue. That's that's that's that's not a normal
level of bad it is, but yes, really bad example. Um.
(10:38):
She Her campaign was was asked for comment the case recently,
and a spokesperson said, uh, Burrell was tried and convicted
of Taisha's murder twice. The second trial occurred when Klobishar
was no longer the Hennepin County attorney. If there was
new evidence, it should be immediately reviewed by the court.
You know, Amy klobish shart of talking around the issue,
(11:01):
clb amy clous sure you going to address the actual point.
Amy Clobus shouldn't have done that, um as the Nope. Anyway, UM,
So that was a story I really wanted to share Cody.
I know that you've got some more information about her
time is as the attorney. Yeah, this is county attorney. Yeah.
(11:24):
This is a good contrast to UM and the police
shootings and stuff. UM. So yeah, Amy pal Montgomery Cloba
char was the Hennepin County Attorney UM, as a Katie described.
She was also UM the president of the Minnesota County
Attorney's Association from November two thousand two, two thousand three. UM,
(11:45):
as outlined in the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees Union letter. Her employees say that she treated
them poorly during her tenure UM, which we're going to
get into, but I just wanted to make a note
of that during pops up, how often it pops up
exactly as County Attorney Amy prosecuted the possession of kat
(12:06):
k h a t she so she prosecuted this possession
of among Somali immigrants coats A. It's a stimulant. It's
similar to chewing tobacco. UM. And we'll actually come back
to that in a moment, But first, a brief bit
about Minnesota, specifically Minneapolis St. Paul, the Twin Cities area.
(12:30):
It has the largest Somali diaspora population in America. It's
more than seventy four thousand people. The immigration started in
the eighties. It increased in the nineties due to the
Somalian Civil War. UM. An example of one of those
more than seventy four thousand people is Somalian refugee and
US Congress when elan Omar, Her district makes up eastern
(12:51):
Hannepin County. UM checking moved there just a few years
before Clobachar became county attorney. U s a little context
about the area the population. That's they're a lot of refugees.
UM and uh, a little Congress buddy, Hi to Congress Congress. Yeah,
I'm sure they're very much aligned. Been really really aligned
in friends and stuff. UM. Anyway, So back to cot.
(13:13):
It is a stimulant similar to chewing tobacco. It has
effects described as a mild high or buzz, similar to
strong coffee. It can Yeah, it can potentially create psychological
dependency and has some minor health risks like sleep problems,
increased blood pressure. UM. Again, like coffee, I would say
it's less toxic for you than chewing tobacco, worse for
(13:36):
you than coffee, Yes, that that like that if you're
like looking to place it roughly, it's strong's strong coffee. Um.
The World Health Organization it's a little carcinogenic. Is kind
of the big difference between it and coffee. Like there
are some consequences, but it's not really you'd be a
very silly person to make a big deal out of it.
You would be very silly to make a big deal
about it. Exactly, it's possible, and it made a big
(14:00):
deal of this, Umsachar, thank you. Yeah. So the Pro
level Organization it doesn't consider it like seriously addictive or harmful. Um,
it's actually, uh to your point, Robert, it's actually less
addictive than tobacco or alcohol yea. Um. But despite all
of this, it is illegal in the United States. Um.
(14:21):
It's also illegal in Canada, Germany, and the UK. We
kind of come back to the ukanan bit Um. It's
legal and sold in many other countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Somalia,
though it is some level of controlled substance in most
European countries. Like I said, UK, they made it illegal
in two thousand and fourteen. Um. And we're getting a
(14:42):
little far away from any but I think this this,
I think this story is interesting. So there was there
was a bit of a moral panic about COT in
the UK in the early two thousand's. Specifically, there was
concerned about its use by immigrants from Somalia, Yemen in Ethiopia. UM.
There wasn't a lot of evidence of its dangers, so
(15:03):
the Home Office commissioned a bunch of research, which was
presented in a report to the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs, which decided to keep it legal on
account of it being basically fine, UH, noting that the
use was moderate and it was largely used as a
social activity. But a couple of years later UM the
Conservative Party announced it would quote tackle unacceptable cultural practices
(15:26):
UM and that included the use of cost So in
the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs released another
report about how there was no evidence that it was
harmful or addictive or directly linked to crime. Six months later,
Teresa May banned it. So just some context here caught.
If you're really looking at where it's legal or illegal,
(15:50):
it's a cultural thing, it's a social activity. UH. Attorney
Renee Clemenson noted during some of this that the county
has spent so much time, money, and effort on what
is a social gathering in the Somali community, like meeting
for a cup of coffee. It's a cultural thing. Um.
So back to Minneapolis when Amy Klobuchar became the county
(16:13):
attorney and Elahan Omar, I don't know, she's learning to
drive at the time, something like that, Amy klobush attorney.
The important thing is that we never give up with this,
but not ever. Yeah, you keep me give up absolute,
charred as absolutely, I mean, come on, alright, so so
(16:40):
uh uh. Co prosecutions were rare at the time when
Amy started, um, because it wasn't considered much of a
problem as we've discussed, because it's fine, because it's because
it's fine. But Klobuchar decided to prosecute people using COT
and she defended her aggressive enforcement by saying, this is
an a legal drug in our country. It is our
(17:02):
job to prosecute the cases. Um, this just seems so
much like it reminds me of like the Commalas stuff too.
It's like picking something that is popular enough that you
can say, look, I'm tough on crime. Look I'm tough.
I'm a i'm a I'm a immigrant crime too. Yeah. Though,
although she did claim that cod is not limited to
(17:24):
use by Somali's um, which I don't know if you've
been listening, but it's mostly used by them, um, which
means that they're the most likely to be prosecuted for it.
Her other justification was that cod can cause paranoia and
hallucinations um, which is true for those genetically predisposed to psychosis,
which is true of those who use too much caffeine. Also,
(17:47):
it's the same thing with like marijuana, or with sila
seben mushrooms. It's all almost any kind of of of
like psychoactive chemical. If you are predisposed to psychosis or
to like schizophrenia, it's potentially possible that that could trigger
it um. Which it's the same thing with like alcohol.
If you are predisposed to alcoholism, having a beer could
(18:10):
trigger a horrible addiction in you and other people. It
triggers a neat super Bowl party like It's exactly yeah,
this is yeah. Okay, I'll tell us more about what
Amy did. So why when she started prosecuting all these cases? Okay,
sled Hey, but Cloba Chase has nailed it. Okay, yeah,
(18:32):
you're to go, Robert, you're doing your club with chart
um part okay, yeah, okay, the top cop as it were, UM,
deciding to prosecute this specifically. UM. And this is what
I think is sort of kind of what you were
getting at Katie. UM. It's their choice. Uh. Even Like so,
(18:56):
just a month ago, prosecutors into Northern Virginia County, He's
announced they wouldn't be prosecuting marijuana possession. Um. According to
the Jeff Bezos Washington Post. UH, the prosecutors Discano and
Degani Tafti said pot possession prosecutions do little to protect
public safety, disproportionately fall on people of color, saddle defendants
(19:17):
with damaging convictions, and drain resources that can better be
spent on more serious crimes. Fair point about pot prosecutions.
So I guess my point is that Amy went out
of her way to prosecute the Somali immigrant community for
the cultural use of an ostensibly harmless coffee leaf that's
legal in their native country. UM. And incidentally, those Somali
(19:40):
immigrants would be subject to deportation for these convictions of
using that ostensibly harmless coffee leaf. UM. Completely related in
checking out the various ratings she's gotten from out of
secure advocacy groups for her her record. Um, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws gave Amy Klobuchar
a D. So if you like pot, you're not allowed
(20:01):
to vote for shot exactly nailed it. So back to
the russ secutor. Yeah, it's just also nailed it. Everyone's nailing.
So you know how she decided to prosecute caught usage,
which he did not need to do, and it had
(20:22):
this the effects that we've all we've talked about. Um,
but don't worry. She's not all work. You know, she's cool,
she's fun. Sometimes she decides not to prosecute things like
those police killings and the brutality that you mentioned earlier.
She chose to prosecute some recreational drug use, primarily of
(20:43):
a racial nature, but she also chose not to prosecute
police violence. So really it equals out balance. Um, that's
why she's she's the moderates as Canada. You know, she's
got the balance, got both both sides. Yeah, that's very
moderate her. Yeah. Um so yeah, I just sort of
(21:03):
wanted to uh make that contrast. We don't need to
get into a lot of the police shootings. Um she
I mean there were a lot of them. Uh. This
one case, Tahitia Williams Brewer apparently begged Clobar to prosecute
a case in which a police officer killed her black
teenage son in two thousand and four. She wrote to
clobachar quote, the grand jury is a way of hiding
(21:26):
that the prosecutor is not giving the full information of
guilt to the grand jury. I want this process out
in the open where everyone can observe it and make
sure it is fair to my son. She didn't respond
to this, uh this letter, um, and all of the
cases um, the twenty civilian deaths, all of them went
to a grand jury, um, which which is yeah, usually
(21:51):
done to sort of hide this sort of information and
uh not take accountability for that. So I just wanted
to make that contrast where she's making this decision like
going out of her way to prosecute this like social thing. Um,
it's well done. I think you did it, a great job.
Thank you. Um, we're gonna take a quick break because
we got it. He has given us the sign Um
(22:14):
it's all her fault. I love it when Sophie gives
us the sign butt fingers. Um. But then we're gonna
be back and talk more about Amy clobe Bush. Somebody
fill it in for me. Amy Clobush should buy products
and services everything, so don't don't and we're Cloe Bush back.
(22:49):
Did you just leave us back? Yeah? I don't know.
That's so much better. I'm such a fraud. I'm sorry.
I'll go back to just be We're clubs back. Oh god,
like I wanted to drop out so we can stop this. Well, no,
(23:12):
not to show my bias or anything, but can you
just continue with what you've prepared? I've done? Are you
are Robert? What do you got? Oh? My god? Okay,
So I have a little essay I wrote um with
the working title of Amy Klobachar and Joseph Stalin Who
(23:35):
was meaner? Um? And the answer is Joseph Stalin because
of all of the all of the but Amy Klobachar
is also pretty pretty mean to her employees too. Um.
So I'm gathering that that's what I wrote four pages about.
So uh, I think we should start with with with
with a little bit of objective analysis, because a lot
(23:58):
of what we're getting into a subjective you know, people
have nobody's liked by everybody, Right, everybody's get someone who
dislikes them. You have a bunch of employees, some of
them are gonna dislike you. We're gonna be going over
a bunch of that here. There's always the risk. Yes,
I mean probably, but we know that's not true, not
if you were in Congress. All right, I'm sorry, Well,
(24:21):
any anybody who continue, we're going to like, we're gonna
be getting into like some some subjective reports by people
on Amy's behavior, which are always there's the potential for bias.
So I want to start with kind of some objective
analysis of how employees react to her. UM and there's
a there's an online portal called leges Storm that that
(24:43):
tracks Capitol Hills workforce UM and they have a feature
called Worst Bosses which shows the members of the House
inciate with the highest turnover rate UM and the organization
use salary data from two thousand and one to two
that in sixteen to figure out ten offices in each
chamber with the highest annual turnover rate. And they didn't
just do a direct translation. They have a formula that
(25:04):
sort of ways like the departure of senior officials higher
than lower level staff. Um, and like it excludes leadership
offices with frequent turnover, so they try to like anticipate
for just sort of how politics works. Some positions, everyone's
got high turnover, so you don't want that to count
against somebody. So it seems like they have a pretty
reasonable kind of like algorithm for accounting who runs through
(25:26):
employees the fastest. And in the Senate, Amy has the
highest rate of turnover in office. It's thirty six percent
compared to thirty percent for Maria Cantwell, the number two
worst turnover in the Senate. UM. Now, high turnover doesn't
necessarily mean someone's a bad boss or runs a bad office.
It could be as signed that she highest particularly ambitious
(25:47):
employees or that they get regularly headhunted for other work. UM.
So we have to dig a little bit deeper before
we declare Amy a bad boss. And thankfully three different
major news organizations have dug into the and there's reports
from The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and the humping Huffington Post. YEA, yeah,
(26:10):
that was that was a cloba chuck up of my dammit. Okay,
I'm just gonna talk about Amy as a boss. Uh,
there's a I'm gonna quote from an anecdote. The New
York Times related about her from two eight quote. An
aid joining her on a trip to South Carolina in
two thousand and eight had procured a salad for his
(26:31):
boss while hauling their bags through an airport terminal, but
once on board, he delivered the grim news he had
fumbled the plastic eating utensils before reaching the gate, and
the crew did not have any forks on such a
short flight. What happened next was typical. Miss Klobuchar berated
her aid instantly for the slip up. What happened after
that was not. She pulled a comb from her bag
and began eating the salad with it, according to four
(26:52):
people familiar with the episode, Then she handed the comb
to her staff member with the directive clean it. You
would have eaten it with a comb off a club
acomb if I was yeah, that's what they're called a
combat it's a new utensil. If I was desperate enough,
the clean also, it is weird. It's weird. Maybe I wouldn't.
(27:15):
I would have accepted a spoon. It's a little weird.
Certainly not damning, but a little weird. A little weird,
Just a little weird. Yeah. And she went on to
joke about this moment with her fellow Democratic legislators in
a speech later. Um and it may seem like one
odd anecdote out of the context of her life. Um,
if it didn't fit in perfectly with everything else about
her history as a person in power. In a two
(27:35):
thousand nineteen article based on interviews with dozens of her
former employees, BuzzFeed found quote the Minnesota Democrat ran a
workplace controlled by fear, anger, and shame, according to interviews
with eight former staffers, one that many employees found intolerably cruel.
She demeaned and braided her staff almost daily, subjecting them
to bouts of explosive rage and regular humiliation within the office.
(27:56):
One particular trigger for Amy club a chair seems to
be when her employees do things that she feels reflect
badly on her. At one point, frustrated with the lame
Twitter jokes her aids were writing her, she told them,
we are becoming a joke, and it is making us
a joke. When aids did think she considered mistakes, Miss
Clobuchar would tell them that they were damaging her career.
On one occasion, she told an aid that this aid
(28:16):
was quote ruining my marriage, presumably because Senator Klobuchar was
was going to have to work over time at the
office to correct a mistake. Amy's former staff or say
she also had a habit of delivering cruel remarks just
out of the blue, at one point telling a team member,
I would trade three of you for a bottle of water. Wow. Cool, Yeah,
and sorry, I said dozens of there's dozens of different
(28:38):
employees interviewed between all three articles Buzze eight. But yeah, charming,
it's not it's not great, right, it's it's this is
not great stuff for a person to do to human
beings around them. Yeah, there's a there's a element of
this that, uh, it's we it's weird. I even see
I've seen articles talk about this and be like, well,
(28:59):
she's the problem is it she hires bad people like
like it's their fault. Um, And there's just like the
sense um And I'm not gonna be like it's trump stuff,
but like if your boss is this way and cruel,
uh and demeaning to you, that trickles down like that
affects every Yeah, I maybe we haven't all had terrible bosses,
(29:23):
but a lot of us have. We know what that
does to people, right, Well, then it just creates that
culture we're like, okay, well, like the people under underneath me,
I'm going to treat them this way. Um, And I
don't know that's not great? Yeah, I mean I I
don't want to like, I don't want to like spill
anything here. But I have a boss who, very unreasonably,
(29:43):
UM gets angry when I, for example, try to hit
cans of compressed air with a machete. Um. And you
know I I do feel that that is Um, that's
a kind of assault emotionally on me. Shut the fun up. Wow,
I will hit you with a clipboard. See see your
(30:04):
cloba charing. You're right now, Cody and kidie, you can
do no wrong doing. Take it back. You guys are awesome.
Up everybody can hear feel like a pawn right now? Um?
What else you got about? Okay? So, former aids told
The New York Times that it was de rigor for
(30:25):
departing employees to save particularly damning emails from Amy Klobuchar
in case they needed evidence of her behavior to defend
themselves from being bad mouthed. Later, on amy emails. Examples
of these include, according to the New York Times, quote
in twenty years in politics, I have never seen worst prep,
Miss Clobachar said in one email, displeased at how a
(30:46):
political event had been handled. This is hands down the
worst thing you have ever given me, she wrote another,
questioning her team's grasp of policy is she rejected its slop.
This is the worst press staff I have ever had,
she announced once to employees, According to an aid press
and this was effectively a rite of passage. The aid
said the Senator had plainly said the same about both
predecessors and successors in the office. M hmm, Yeah, it's inspiring.
(31:12):
And it's also like, you know, um when when you
talk about like, um, sort of why the Trump administration,
why like so much damning ship keeps like leaking out
of the administrations because he's kind of fundamentally incapable of
maintaining of inspiring loyalty his employees because he like fox
(31:32):
them over and attacks them. Yeah, he demands loyalty and
then stabs in the back. This is our answer to
fixing that in the White House. Yes, yes, yeah, this
is the This is like obviously I'm not trying to say,
like everyone should be like Barack Obama and George W. Bush,
because both of those presidents were either terrible or profoundly mediocre,
(31:56):
verging on terrible. Um and you know, respect, but both
were many who were capable of, like really inspiring a
lot of loyalty in their in their employees. And as
a result, you didn't see this kind of ship leak
out about about either White House. Um yeah, and like
knowing that, like I got to do this because yeah,
(32:19):
we'll just wait for the next paragraph. Robert's going to read, Yeah,
read it now. Um, I don't know. Let's uh, you
guys want to think about what a good song American
Pie was before I start reading the next paragraph. Which
part which part of the first minute or the eighth
minute or all all fourteen minutes. When Amy was angry
(32:42):
at employees, she would frequently make them do her dishes
or handle other medio cleaning tasks for her as a
power move. She also had a reputation for yelling, throwing
papers and sometimes harder objects. I'll say this, having someone
do your dishes might not be a power move. It
might just be a lazy move. Okay, yeah, uh, we'll
see if you feel about that. On the it's possible.
(33:03):
A lot of this stuff, A lot of this stuff, no, no, no,
but like you're right, a lot of this stuff taken
out of context is not a dysfunctional or abuse of
office make um, but this context. Yeah. On at least
one occasion, she threw a binder at a subordinate and
hit him on the head. She claimed that it was
an accident, but like, that doesn't really make it better.
(33:24):
You can't accidentally throw a binder. You can't accidentally throw
a binder. You can accidentally she accidentally hit him. She
wasn't didn't mean to hit him, So she meant to
throw it in a rage, yes, but not to contract him. Okay,
so okay, so why did you get in the way
(33:44):
of my binder? That's exactly Most of the staffers who
talked to BuzzFeed insisted that this was not just a
case of Amy being a difficult boss. They described her
as uniquely unbearable. They're telling yeah, yeah, yeah, they're telling
(34:05):
of things. Makes her look like one of those people
who just explodes without warning over things like minear grammatical errors,
over the use of staples instead of paper clips, or
over the use of the word community in a press release.
This last one is part of a pattern she has
of hating very specific terms like absolutely straight shooting and supporter,
um yeah, support the grammar thing like I can respect that. Yeah,
(34:32):
I mean I can't respect blowing up. I don't know, No,
I can't respect. But at the same time, all my
grammar heads were like, yeah, if this is the only
thing she was kind of anal about, it would be
one thing. Again, It's kind of like the whole picture,
you know. It's like how you deal with it. It's
not just yes. Uh. Now. In fairness, there were quite
(34:53):
a few. There were at least a number of former
employees who spoke well of her and called Amy tough
but fair. One of them they sweating with an earpiece,
very fair. One of them told BuzzFeed quote, her job
wasn't to be my mentor and cheerleader. Her job was
to get shipped done from Minnesota. But BuzzFeed noted that
(35:14):
four other staffers all disagreed with this and claim that
Amy's behavior negatively impacted the quality of work produced in
her office. One of them said, quote, I'm not an
anxious person. I've worked for other tough bosses, but It's
hard to explain the anxiety that permeates the office. It
is an overwhelming sense of panic and not being able
to plan. You never knew what was going to come
at you. That compounds and it affects the workplace. Yeah,
(35:36):
I'm gonna say it again. It sounds like exactly what
we need to track. And there's always this difficulty when
you try to compare it to other presidents, where people
can be like, Okay, but look at all the other
terrible things those presidents did, and like, yeah, George W. Bush,
Barack Obama did some fucked up ship, but also like
they were a really relatively effective organizations within the context
(35:59):
of our political system. And if you want to get
shipped done, I want the next president to be better
than both of them by far, but I want them
to be an effective organizer of people. And all of
this points to Amy not being that. Um yeah, but
you know it is an effective organizer of people. What God,
sweet lady capitalism, the grand damn of exchanging money for
(36:25):
products and services. Perfect, She's perfect, ideal, lawless here together everything.
(36:47):
We're back. We're back, We're back. So what we're clock?
Char sorry, Clock, char, thank you, thank you, another AID
who was inner you expressly told BuzzFeed, I don't think
this is one of those situations where sexism is to blame.
This aid was also female, and they told BuzzFeed, if
(37:09):
it were a man doing these things, that story should
be written. And that is a common refrain among the
complaints you'll read about Amy. An awful lot of her
former employees don't just think she was mean. They think
her meanness is significant enough that voters desperately need to
know about it before they consider voting for her last
It's tough. It's tough because it's an an easy line
(37:34):
of complaint that can be skewed as being sexist, but
it's also sounds like a true thing, you know, and
so we have to be able to talk about it.
And that's coming from you here. Yeah, I'm not judgmental
of a mean you know. I believe a female boss
can be tough without like being criticized for its Sophie
(37:54):
regularly throws things at me. Um goes into rages with Machette.
You know. That's the difference. The only thing I throw
at you is love and respect, Robert, that's true, that's true.
And frustration sometimes and Um alright, disappointment Um. Last February,
the Huffington Post reported, based on multiple interviews, that back
(38:17):
in two thousand fifteen, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had
to sit down with Amy Clobuchar privately and tell her
to change her behavior towards her staff Um Amy clobal lecture,
schar lecture, Tom, Sorry, I didn't do it. No, you're perfect.
(38:37):
You're perfect, Katie. The Huffington Post reached out to Harry
Reid to ask him about this, and the write up
of his response is pretty hilarious. A spokesman for Reid
said the retired senator prefers not to discuss private conversations
he had with other senators. In this case, Read also
does not remember whether or not he had this discussion
with Globuchar. The spokesman said. Senator club Char is one
(39:00):
of the most brilliant, hardest working members of the Senate,
and I was glad to serve alongside her, said Read.
She's tireless when it comes to fighting for the people
of Minnesota and the country, and that's why she's such
a popular senator back home and among her colleagues. You'll
notice that this is not a denial. It's really not
a lot of words, but I prefer not to comment.
But also I don't remember. But also she's cool. But
(39:23):
also please don't tell her that I said any of
that now. The Huffington Post also reported on a leaked document.
They found an eight page memo written by several of
Cloba Char's aids during her first Senate run in two
thousand and six. And the whole memo is basically them
talking about how to manage their bosses temper. And I'm
(39:43):
going to read a quote from that, especially while in
the car during a busy day. If she is all
caps extremely upset about something, let her rant through it
all caps. Don't interrupt her unless all caps absolutely necessary,
and be careful when try to calm her down. Often
she needs just needs to talk things out in the
open and is not interested in other people's opinions. This
(40:06):
is something that you will become used to and adjust to.
It's just a note for the first time this happens,
so we need Yeah, yeah, that sounds that would be
fun um As a senator, Cloba chars paid parental leave
policy has attracted some attention to people familiar with it.
Told The New York Times that anyone going on paid
leave was required among return to spend three times as
(40:29):
many weeks in the office as they've been gone. Is
that that's not great? Yeah, employees who left without making
up this time we're required to pay back money they
paid leave. Question. Yeah, I have to note that when
questioned about this, by the time Senator clob Char's office
issued a flat denial. We offered twelve weeks of paid
(40:49):
maternity and paternity leave for our staff and have one
of the strongest paid leave policies in the Senate. That
a spokeswoman, Alana Ross, we've never made staff payback any
of their leave and will be changing that language in
the handbook. She declined to provide a copy of the
current policy is written. So it's hard to know like
what actually went down, because you're saying, like there's some
language there that at least made people think they had
(41:10):
to pay back any of their leave, and you won't
show it. So I feel like you're being weasily. But
it seems like a terrible political choice the woman and
have I mean for anybody to have that policy, but
especially for mother herself and a Democrat. Yeah, the most
(41:33):
important thing to understand about the allegations of meanness on
behalf of amyklobchar is that these these allegations are not
opportunistic attacks on a presidential candidate. Numerous individuals, dozens and
dozens of people at this point have made the same,
very consistent claims about Amy as a boss for more
than ten years. So this is not just because she's
(41:53):
running for president. This goes back a long time. Yeah,
just we're about to talk about that. In two thousand
and six, Amy was the county attorney for Hinnipen County, Minnesota.
When she decided to leave that job to run for Senate.
The local chapter of the union that represented her employees,
(42:15):
the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wrote
a letter to the union leadership begging them not to
endorse Amy for the Senate. The letter was signed by
the president of the local chapter and contains reports from
a number of members. It claims that Amy showed disdain
for her employees, detigrating them publicly and privately, and refusing
to support wage adjustments. And I'm gonna quote from that
(42:36):
letter now. The strong feelings of our membership compelled the
executive board of Local two nine three eight to write
you regarding asked me as the union's contemplated endorsement of
a candidate for the United States Senate. Our local represents
the attorneys and legal professionals in the Hinnipen Counties Office
who have worked under Canon at enemy Cloba Char for
seven years. Thus, we are in the unique position of
providing you with the most comprehensive information necessary to judge
(42:58):
Miss Clobachar's perform its on the issues Jermaine to our organization.
Four years ago, this local council fourteen to withhold the
endorsement from Amy Klobuchar. This request was ignored. We do
not want that to happen again. The purpose of this
letter is to tell you why Miss Klobuchar continues to
be wholly undeserving of afsme's endorsement. Throughout her tenure as
Hennepin County Attorney, Amy Clobachar has demonstrated her disdain for
(43:20):
the very employees that have placed her in the position
to run for the office she now seeks. So it's rough, yeah, yeah,
that seems consistent with and I'm You're not done. No,
Because the letter claims that Klobuchar created a hostile work
environment and showed favoritism and her hiring practices. It claims
(43:41):
that when Amy when Amy wound up in conflict with
the union, she convinced several employees to quit and then
rehired them as independent contractors order to reduce union membership.
On at least one occasion, she mocked union members for
seeking a wage adjustment to bring them in line with
a neighboring jurisdiction. When union leaders asked about whether or
not she would support a wage adjustment given that she'd
given new employees from her former law firm better starting
(44:03):
salaries and the top paid non supervisory attorneys in her
county office, she dismissed the comparison by claiming that the
county employees were not competent enough to work at her
former for former firm. Most damningly, the letter claims that
Miss Clobuchar regularly took credit for the accomplishments of the
subordinate she denigrated and insulted. Quote. The fact that Miss
Clobuchar holds so little regard for her employees has not
(44:25):
stopped her from taking credit for their work. She has
used the publicity from the very success from the many
successfully prosecuted criminal cases. To give the public the false
impression that she was actively involved in those cases, she
was not. She presents herself as a dedicated public servant,
acutely concerned with the public safety, when her only dedication
is to her own self promotion. She sounds awful. She
(44:49):
sounds awful. Yeah, and again that's that's clearly no one
is trying to stop her from running for president with
that report. It is from fourteen years ago. Right, Um,
you know, I got one last thing. We're not even done. Like,
have either of you guys watched the TV show veep
(45:09):
YEA great show, great show. One of the characters and
I'm I always faced on her name the blonde lady
who is aide to the vice president. The show is
about um, a woman who's like the vice president and
then the President of the United States placed by a
Julia Louis dreyfuss Um. And she's she's a bad person
and a bad politician. Um. And it's like about a
(45:31):
dysfunctional It's like, it's this is how works everyone's I have.
I have been told by multiple Republican and Democrats who
have worked on congressional campus, worked in congressional offices, senatorial offices, UM,
and other like like federal level political offices as well
(45:53):
as gubernatorial offices like like. More than a dozen people
at this point that it is the only show that
accurately describes what it's like to work in American politics. UM.
In that show, there is a moment where the character Amy,
who was the aid to the vice president, mentions that
she had to dry shave Julia Louis Dreyfuss's character's legs
(46:14):
under the table during a cabinet meeting. UM. That is
based on a rumor about something Amy Klobuchar is supposed
supposedly actually did. She had an aid drive shave her
legs for her UM. This is completely unconfirmed, but it
is a very intrinched rumor in d C. Um Veep
writer David Mandel, when questioned about it, said this, it
(46:36):
is a well known rumor that we were told a
million times by millions of people. Any time I brought
her being Amy Klobuchar up with people in d C,
someone would tell us that story as a rumor, unconfirmed, unconfirmed.
The rum was the rumor that it was happening during
a meeting, or was it just like I don't think
(46:57):
it was happening. I thought that was that that was yeah, yeah, yeah,
um what I I just I do hope it. I mean,
I hope it isn't true, but I hope it's true.
I mean yeah, Um, I mean you know that that
would be one of those things. There's stuff that I
think would be a bad side about a president. Uh,
(47:17):
and there's stuff that like might not necessarily be Like
L B. J urinated on and he was a very
very productive president for all of his laws. So the
fact that Amy has like some weird power like that,
that might be, like, that's one of those things, like, yeah,
the kind of lunatics who become president. I could see
that being a reason someone's got the temperament for the job,
(47:39):
as opposed to the inability to have an office function,
which is not a sign of a good temperament. No
it isn't. Yeah. Um, let's talk a little bit more
with our remaining minutes, um about some club bush other things. Nice.
Oh my god, I feel like every single one of
these has been a home run. It's their only good.
(48:03):
Everybody listening really likes them. Um, that's for sure. Some
fun little things about for Club. Sure. Um, she voted
to confirm nearly two thirds of Trump's judges. Her climate
change policy gets US C minus. No, I'm sorry that
her climate change policy gets a C plus C plus
(48:26):
from the passing. It's passing. It's also the second lowest rating.
Not good. It's right above Bloomberg, right, yeah, Bloomberg. Um.
And we've already mentioned how she didn't know the name
of the president of Mexico this week. Um. Well, so
so her time in the Senate, we haven't talked about
(48:46):
much aside from her behind the scenes behavior. Um. These
I think votes are are important to recognize. Um that
she is like one of the big things that we
don't really talk about much, are these judges that are
all getting through. And two thirds is a lot. Um.
I'm comparing it with like, um, uh Kirsten jilla Brand
(49:08):
who dropped out quite a while ago. Um. And she's
her record is actually like pretty consistently like voting against
every single thing. Um. But so I want to talk
a little bit about Cloba Char's time in the Senate
because I was just looking at like her record, like, uh,
what has she passed? How many bills and things like that? Um?
And she of all the candidates, she has passed the
(49:29):
most um in her short time in Congress. Thirty four bills. Um,
I guess that's a lot that's a that's a clobusch
alata bills. Well, there's it's it's a lot um and uh,
you know he compared to someone like Warren and Sanders
both have seven things like that. Um. But I would
(49:51):
also point out that it's just interesting. So like you know,
she's have like, uh wrote a bill with Marco Ruby
about water pollution and they're just various, you know, random bills.
And I guess American treasure. American are are our friend
and national hero. Marco. She wrote a bill improving uh,
(50:17):
the call quality and rural areas. There's one modifies the
screening requirements for luggage coming from preclearance airports. It's called
the No Hassle Flying Act. Um. So I could see
how this is all something. I mean, you could look
at that and be like, look, she knows how to
work with people from all across the board. Also be
(50:40):
a good senator. That thing like if you're like as
a so, I guess if you're looking for a president
and you want a senator that has past bills, then
maybe APIs for you. But in looking into this, I
also just sort of glanced at like other bills people right, um,
(51:00):
and a lot of I think the criticism of Bernie
Sanders is there, like he hasn't passed much. We can
talk about amendments all day if we want, but like
the actual bills he is passed. Um. But if you
look at the bills that he has written that have
not been passed, because uh, you can go online, it
be like here all the bills that have been passed. Here,
all the bills have been written, they have not been enacted. Um.
(51:20):
Every single one of them is like, oh, yeah, we
shouldn't give money to people to pollute rivers. Oh yeah
we should. Like it's just a series of like, oh,
we shouldn't have raised the co payments for Medicare. That
should be no co payments. It's all this stuff that like, yeah,
I understand why the Senate didn't pass it. Um. And
I think it's a if you're which is like, which
(51:41):
is just in terms of like what you're looking for
in a president. Is it like, oh I passed a
bunch of bills, or like I have this vision for
what we should be passing. This is the point that
I'm really trying to make. But to our credit also,
I also looked into the number of missed votes uh
as her time as a senator. As we've talked about,
(52:02):
she's a hard worker. She's really hard on her staff,
so they get a lot of work done. Um. Of
all the candidates, she's missed the fewest, um, even during
the election, so like, uh, you know, when Hillary is running,
she missed the votes because she was running for president,
warrants missed a lot of votes. Recently, Santa has missed
(52:22):
a lot of votes. Uh. Even though Amy is still running,
she's not missed a lot of votes. She's the least. Um,
it's good for her. I guess at my point, I'm
trying to I'm trying to complimentary. Yeah, it sounded like
you were trying to make a no, no, no, um
good for not missing the votes that apparently are two
(52:44):
thirds supporting of Trump's judges. That part's less good. Maybe
maybe just skip the votes Amy, I don't know. I
guess we could say she did a good thing badly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
So I don't know, there's that. Before we wrapped this up,
we're just gonna talk a little bit about her empathy speech.
(53:06):
Her empathy speech. You know, you guys have a lot
to say about this empathy. Yeah, I mean well, I
mean she gave this speech at the last debate, which,
by the way, there's a debate tomorrow again. Unbelievable, just
unbelievab It's gonna be a blast anyway. Um, the last one,
her closing statement was about empathy and sort of taking
on Donald Trump and operating from a place of empathy,
(53:28):
and she teared up during it. Um, And I don't
disagree with that sentiment. I think empathy is important. Um
my issue, I guess we're bringing it up. If your
policies and ideas and vision don't embody that empathy, then
(53:48):
what's the fucking point? Um? If you're just is this
this performative like unity stuff instead of actually enacting empathetic policies,
then um, yeah, I don't know the point. That's how
I just described inherently what being a democrat or being
liberal is. I mean, there's a lot of differences between
that and conservatives, but like, I don't know, a liberal
(54:13):
democratic in theory anyway, we're supposed to be about empathy,
about caring for the weakest among us versus protecting the
rich and protecting self interest. Um and so like that
word I think is really important. But yeah, does she
actually reflect that policies and also in her actions. I
think we've if we reflect on her behind the scenes actions.
(54:36):
I don't know if she necessarily lives that speech. Um,
so yeah, I just wanted to talk about that because
I think it's it's not a bad thing to talk about.
But um, maybe she's not. Maybe she's not as empathet
against things to talk about it. I don't know. Well, there,
we did it. We talked about it. We did guys.
(55:00):
I feel really good getting that out of the well.
I'm I'm glad she's the front runner. I will say
that I did just see um an op ed on
the debt that I did just see an op ed
on the Daily Beast. As we were recording this, it's
suddenly obvious Klobascher is the Democrats best. It's happening. Who
(55:22):
which which which writer has their well on the pulse
of okay good, that's lewis S call. Take. Yes, Yes,
she's clearly, she's clearly the front runner. Not Joseph Robinette Biden,
(55:43):
the person who Uh was pulling well for the length
of most of the time the campaign. Not Bernie Sanders,
the person who is currently pulling the best, Not Pete
Buddha Gedge the close second, Not Elizabeth Warren who is
in third place. Um, but am Amy Klovish? Are you
(56:03):
kidding me? She's a strong fifth, strong fifth? This The
log line for this is wild. The Minnesota Senator is
the obvious consensus Joyce. She'll have some trouble with the
Bernie Brats, but who wouldn't. She's a winner. Yeah, it's
it's like how dash the fifth person to reach the
(56:28):
finish line is the obvious front run Well, because what
are you doing? It's like the how the tortoise in
the hair that the tortoise wins the race? Unbelievable. Um,
that's beautiful. Um the obvious choice. I like the use
of Bernie Brats. I didn't even go that far. Um. Alright, guys,
(56:52):
thanks for listening, sharing the journey with us. You're welcome.
I know you're talking about the people listening, but you're welcome.
You can check us out all fine at worst your
pod on Instagram and Twitter. That's it, no other social media,
nothing else. But there's merchandise. I guess, uh, we can
do that. Not Nope, Sophie is not um cool. I
(57:18):
guess we're gonna be done now, I guess we have
we're gonna be done. But I want all of our
listeners to go off into the world and know that
to us, we think all of you are hierroba Charskay,
you're all You're all strong fifths. Don't face your brand
new awesome the bottom. I'm so wanted to work that. Okay,
(57:43):
see you next week. Every Worst Your Ever is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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