>> next, a nickel of a sharper cause her life and political career. she is interviewed as susan page in the washington bureau chief for "usa today." >> congratulations on your new book, the senator next-door. it's a pleasure to talk to you about it. and the low allowed to talk about an early brush with sexism and injustice. you are in the fourth grade in

plymouth, minnesota. tell us what happened. >> guest: what happened as i was wearing the first pair of pants ever to be worn to elementary by a girl. it was a public school in minnesota gets to be 10 below zero and i wore a multicolored flower bell bottom pants. i was so proud of these pants and sure enough i was called in to mrs. clayton's office, the principal who had this enormous beehive haircut and still remember to this day. i'm sitting there trembling as she says you can wear your trousers in your culotte enter pantaloons at home, but it he can high school you wear dresses. i literally got a permission slip, walked home to my house to the woods somehow, changed into address and i shed a few tears. i'll say that much. i use that example of why i wrote the book to show off the

road all changing culture that i ended up being able to wear pan, being able to be the girl that could respond to the mrs. quaid is that the world. at that moment i did wish he said. the one tangent to the story is from the book comes out i got a call and they said i mike r. now. he says i did my quaid said about my mom. i said was true. she did take me out of the school. and what he said about her hair with a beehive. i sent a check of the internet, she has a beehive. i have a lot of respect and all of a sudden you hear this voice saying this is al. it is now franken, my colleague. that is how the book started.

>> host: one of the things i took from the story is that it is a process to learn how to stand up for yourself in a situation and it takes some time especially for girls to figure out how to do that. >> guest: it's not about girls. it's people from regular backgrounds growing up in a middle-class neighborhood trying to get people to run for something or get involved in the political process. for me, my teachers were credible mentors back then. she was in that nice that other teachers, the one that caught me off the front of the doors and got stuck on that one of first grade teacher with a bright red hair who would literally stand in the back of the class and yell speak louder. i can't hear you when i gave presentations. she would rather my report card,

speak louder. she would put a space between each letter. those are people that influence my life and made it easier as they went ahead. every step of the way from then to the last two years for a link to a show with john mccain and all those male leaders. john did start the meeting then they would look over at the end job but said no. senator klobuchar is the democratic lead him astray. your dresser next. those people have not been on women, the people of help to me and others along the way i thought about what the book is about. >> host: in about "the senator next door" you read a lot about your family am your daddy was a long time about that columnist for the tribune and worked for "the associated press." in the year you were born, he

played an important role in the presidential election. tell us about that. >> guest: my dad was the one that called the election and this is a situation where illinois, california and minnesota were the last three state valve. it is down to the wire. california ended up going to nixon. so there's my dad, a young reporter said this is what happened. i got this from interview in may god and then verify memories. my dad told george moses, his boss. my dad told george moses he had little doubt the region would go for kennedy. if you grow up on minnesota's iron range in the 20th century he later said he knew they had as many bars as churches and second that the prospects of

northeastern minnesota in 1960 were as bright as the temperance movement chances in west duluth. he emphatically told moses and northeastern minnesota a working-class called kennedy would most likely pick up two thirds of the vote en masse when the state and kennedy won minnesota's 11 electoral votes, that would put them over the top. after hearing to reporters, moses placed a call to the ap general desk in new york sam blackmon. we are going to elect kennedy told blackmon. violence followed. i've got two words for you guys he said. soap was my dad would go to edwards let that be our in his early 30s about the chance to read the national story that declared john f. kennedy the victor and thus the next

president. a sweaty fingers flew across his old underwood typewriter hammering the keys fiercely with no time to follow the usual protocol of three carbon copies underneath. to beat the competitor united press international to the punch, my dad would hand a page to moses containing a single paragraph at a time. moses to check the copy for typos and run it to the teletype operator paragraph by paragraph that a carbon to review and each page including a small piece of the story my dad kept yelling to the operator, bob, how did the last paragraph and? after a night of little sleep, bob would yell back with me. , jim. with a period. he sent out across the wires at 12:33 p.m. eastern time the next

day appeared in newspapers across the country as james reston of "the new york times" six lane the next day the call in and was fundamental. at 12:33, senator kennedy clenched minnesota in the election. 13 minutes later mr. nixon made a formal compassion. after nixon conceded, my dad celebrated his groundbreaking story with moses and johnson. maverick doing the story. i almost died twice and barely missed a hernia at the party was briefed. my dad went to lunch at a nearby swedish café to return to the office. he was given his next assignment three pigs stuck in a mud pit airfare about minnesota. he died in a murder story. that was the year i borne. a year of endless possibilities of new houses and cars and refrigerators.

you hear when a kid from of minutes out of it rather started calling the presidential election. they took a risk and elected a new vigorous leader in catholic thought. it was a good year to be born in. >> they did and that getting it right. >> did i spell retired as of the old writings to help confirm that. it was time to go back and remember those times. >> host: when you were little girls and your dad was covering politics, sports and other things, do you think he thought tucker would be a u.s. citizen? >> guest: grossmont are and not as much, but my dad had ambitions for me. he wanted me to be a judge that he also encouraged me inspired

me and we would go on this crazy trips together that were long and he taught me how to persevere. would you go 100 miles in a day in your dad that i think we can do 20 more, that is a lesson in perseverance. >> host: the story about paris on bike rides are terrifying. he read about wearing no helmet, going 145 miles. at one point i got off my bike, laid it on the highway shoulder and pretended i had fallen. he did not buy that. just don't know. part of this was he was writing about the stories for the newspaper. we had a map showing progress but the second part was really a gift from him in my mind for us to get to know each other again, a teenager who didn't want have long dinners at their dad in

talks or how he was doing and what was happening with his love life. this is a much better way and it was my dad's idea. >> host: your parents got divorced because of your father struggle with alcoholism which you write about. we fully aware of what he was dealing with? >> guest: when i was really young he was not. around the time i was born he wasn't drinking that much but it got worse and worse. part of it was the life of the reporter. people would go to drinks with cops, football coaches and covering vikings at the time. the other part was his own background. there were 15 feet underground in my grandpa would go all the time and drink my dad grew up seeing now. he clearly was an alcoholic and

started to drink more and more and when i was growing up i remember being in a car with him when he went off the road after a football game no one was hurt but it's clearly because he was drinking and we got home and he cried and told me he wouldn't do it again. then he had been drinking related arrests. back in the 70s they didn't do much about it. he got the news, it they didn't do much about it. finally before my wedding in 1993, he got a third dwi for driving related incident with alcohol and this time the laws had changed and i was treated very seriously. i went in with him and his lawyer and the counselor and talk to the judge and we went through everything that that it happened in our lives. he said full text drinking for a

while, then he went back to it. he went to treatment and that is when he found redemption. he wrote about how his religion and a get through the time. because it speaks about it all the time and his whole life has been turned around. he's happily married for the third time and so i was able to see not only the difficulty is and badness of alcoholism, but also my dad recovering that redemption. >> host: he is open about it, but was a hard to write about it in your book? >> guest: my dad has written a lot about it before so that's made it different. for me personally yes. obviously i showed it to him ahead of time because i wanted to make sure he was okay with it. it is a hard thing because it to sit back and think about the

effect of how he perjured it to the world. but it meant to me and my mom and sister. >> host: another family crisis helped propel you into politics into a political career. tell us what happened. >> host: my daughter was very sick when she was born. she couldn't swallow. they came in and got us in the middle of the night and that she is very sick you can't swallow. they thought there was a tumor she might've had cerebral palsy. they couldn't figure out what was wrong. she was in intensive care with tubes and everything else back then they had a really got kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours even if the baby was in intensive care. i had no sleep at all. they were giving me the stuff on breast-feeding and i got out and it was really a difficult thing. when she started to get better come it took about a year and half, but somewhere in the middle of their she was still

fed by tubes for a year and a half. i went to the legislature and worked is either good or legislature and talk about things wikipedia is things wikipedia has amazed and embarrassed pretty much all male legislators. we got one of the first laws guaranteeing mothers a 48 hour hospital days. they ended up taking it on the national level. i also learned how to get something done. ended up at the conference committee. people couldn't say they were against it, but some lobbyists are trying to delay at so i brought six pregnant women to the conference committee who are friends of mine and they outnumber the lobby is two to one. the legislator when should this take effect, the pregnant moms raise their hand and said now and it didn't even wait until august 1st. it went to effect the day the governor signed it. >> host: tell us how your daughter is doing now.

guess who she's doing much better. she's a great kid. she was sick a lot growing up because she was so small. but she kind of came out of that with a lot of help from swallowing air piston doctors and is just a unique condition that didn't lead to any other major disability. she's a lot of fun and she also didn't mind having the story told. i don't also would've been her choice, but she's a great kid. >> host: if there is a thread that goes through your new book, it is summed up by a writer you quote in the book. obstacles in the past are not obstacles. they are the past. what does that mean to you? >> guest: to me than if everyone has things they confront. the key is what you do with them and how do you move on and do you try to at least gain some strength from what happens to you and then try to help other

people. that is the key that a lot of people who become public servants and i try to make a case in the book that not everyone is a cartoon character duking it out every day on tv, but a lot of people go into it for the right reasons and has to do with things that happen in their lives that either an elected office or back at the time. that is a lot of what i view my job and i view these things that have happened to me and i don't mean none of them pollyanna way, that they were gifts in that they made me understand how other people thought, how do parents of kids with permanent disabilities felt and how difficult that is what it's like to have an alcoholic in the family and how that led to work on drug courts are some of the treatment no-space-off right now proposed in the senate. >> host: minnesota house of politicians from hubert humphrey

to jesse ventura, and of course walter mondale has played a role in your career. how did you need him? >> guest: walter mondale is someone everyone still loves in minnesota. i first got involved working with him when i was in college and applied for an internship. i ended up getting the job. it was so glamorous. i showed my first in executive office building. i show up in my assignment ready to read it a policy piece was to do the furniture inventory of every piece to crawl under the desk, with the numbers down. it took three weeks and as i like to tell kids that didn't turn to me, that was my first government job in washington and this is my second promise to take them seriously. >> host: walter mondale was someone who knew for years.

what you take from his career by what he had ever taught you are told you by example. >> guest: the stability dignity he has is something missing in today's politics and i tried my best to crack is that in how he would treat people. when i was working with him later at the law firm, the republicans do with colin to talk about issues because he viewed his job in that way and he didn't use a lot of heated rhetoric. some people made fun of him for being too norwegian. he was a lot of fun when he wasn't on tv but there was some value to that and it helped them get done. >> host: when you are more politically a tip yourself you addressing the democratic national convention in 2004 and he gave you advice. i wonder if you tell the story.

>> guest: the background is an elected county attorney and john kerry is running for president. my first major involvement been a speaker. the first time with terry came to minnesota and introduced and i made the rookie mistake at this big rally. i said i give to you it is up there with me, the next president of the united states, john kerry. the crowd goes wild. so obviously think i'm done. he comes over and says i know you aren't done yet, so why did you finish up. posted at such a strong grip on the microphone. >> guest: he later told me it was being nice but i knew i couldn't get away from you. later they have me speak at the boston convention. i had gotten the speech together. you can't say certain things.

they had all these rules. i had a tiny joke, wasn't that funny language and with the words of someone famous in texas. she said what america wants is something as big as this promise. they told me i could use it. the morning of the speech, walter mondale came to me. memorized your speech. i said i should be fine. note that is@he said. remember that time at the convention when carter said hubert or ratio hornblower? alastair teleprompter screwup he said. don't trust it. memorize the speech. this advice struck me as a little out of date. i told him i would memorize my speech and i did. later he turned up at the appointed hour and found myself backstage with patrick leahy, chuck schumer and charlie ringo. don't ask me why the conventions

organizers could meet together with high-powered congressional crowd but they did. the convention hall was fairly full. senator leahy was just before me. he started into his speech but half a minute he stopped and looked around. teleprompter had gone dark. he made a joke suggesting the malfunction was tied to a well-publicized fight he recently had with vice president dick cheney. eventually someone brought out a copy of senator leahy's remarks. omar i stood waiting at the corner of the stage i could see walter mondale. he was sitting right in the front row. i made eye contact and i've never seen a more pointed i told you so not in my life. i nodded back. i stepped up to the podium.

someone gave me a printed copy and at some point the telecom or cannot the life that i rarely let data i never looked at the printed copy. thanks to walter mondale had memorized my speech and i was only at the crowd. i had some fun in the speech went great. i use the bush line. >> you are elected from minnesota. is your gender and asset or liability? >> we've had two strong women and the majority leader in the 80s and before that in the 70s the secretary of state had run and they both lost. people would literally ask the newspaper editor to save you think a woman can win.

but they reference to kay bailey hutchison, i said well, a woman one in texas. i think a woman can win. so i finally ended up i didn't emphasize gender that much because of the issue in the other two women and i would just say some of the guys to speak to these big rooms of workers and someone would ask that question and last time i checked cap the voters were men. if i was just running as a woman i wouldn't win. i said so i'm running as a prosecutor of what i want to do for the state of minnesota. at the end of the election when i won, one of the newspaper reporters who writes for the review noted i had emphasize gender. it didn't mean i didn't have a

lot of women support. i had a group called amy angels that meant a lot to me. we did do a lot in terms of gathering women support. >> host: we have a record number of women serving in the u.s. senate right now but it's only 20. fewer than 50 women elected in our country. for the 20 women now in the senate, do you think a women senators tend to behave differently than the male senators? >> guest: i do. is a recent study that showed the women's centers tend to sponsorship is both more and get things done more and they are more bipartisan. it's not just anecdotal. as seen time and time again whether susan collins and they shut down and we put together 14 and whether it was debbie stab at no, barbara mikulski, patty

murray. you've seen barbara boxer working with mitch mcconnell last month to get a transportation bill done added the u.s. senate. a lot of times you see women showing this leadership and there's a lot our trust and we have her every other month dinner and what we say about the man and we never talk about them. that's an important part of the senate. >> the countries never elected a woman to office although sarah palin was vice for public and of those ticket and hillary clinton is now favored to win the democratic nomination for president in 2016 and carly fiorina is running in the gop race this time. to what degree do you think gender as a factor? >> guest: we've gotten better

now, but a lot of men give money to men in a lot of men are in business and so the more we get women in business will be to our advantage. the second piece is sometimes its elite for people to think of women in that management role and that's what you seem percentage smaller of women governors and of course the woman president has not been achieved even though it's been achieved in many countries. i think the time has come and people are starting to see more and more women in leadership roles and they want their own daughters in leadership roles and that change is thinking. >> host: hillary clinton, you are supporting in her presidential campaign.

is it the same criticism. every other official has gotten criticism and happen to everyone. how do you move on. i talk in the book in the exit patients are people do the job and then you have this beachwear you show your stuff and you can be tear to your advantage if you do it right. the second thing i talk about the harassment and it must be taken seriously in the sexist names in so many races are patty murray is called a mom in issues or claire mccaskill gets the opponent talking about as is the fault of the women, all that kind of stuff.

yuko legitimate -- that's what they called it. when you go through those things it starts to boomerang and hurts the opponents who say these things. i had someone to work for my opponent call me a prom queen. i wish. and daddies little girl girl, things like that. nobody knows because i did make a big deal about it. no one notices that because it was so minor and necessary but if you do it the rings. some of that is behind us. the real challenge is still the thing so hard to define when you're a minority, whether you are official minority or a minority because you're a woman. uis wonder sometimes with my not included in the game to work on the grid because they have no women and they wanted to hang out with each other or suggest

to people they wanted to have in the group and its really hard to define those things. shara samberg has talked a lot about that in been in some of the columns being kept out of power and rooms. at the leadership level and i do not discount the words are her rest and is still going on. that is where the fight is now and gets into the presidential level. make sure we are calling people when they exclude women from the decision-making worlds. >> host: one of the things we've seen as candidates as well as handling charges are offensive names in a different way. ..

the media focus and i think she has responded. she understands when there are requests for the server she has complied. has voluntarily given over 35000 e-mails. she has acknowledged that she tasers possibility for what happened, but it's her response ability and she has agreed to hearings in front of the house of representatives so she can be publicly asked questions, so i

think when you combine the review of the e-mail and the release of the e-mails by the state department, with the public hearings, with her responsibility my hope is then that when all of that is complete we can then move to some of the major differences between her and some of the people on the republican side who are talking about deporting kids that were born in this country or talking about building a wall from canada and saying things like one of the problems for american workers is they are not working hard enough. i think those kind of issues and the serious policy protection she is putting forward whether it's about people who are hooked on prescription drugs, we have serious problems in this country that later leads to heroin abuse or the work she is doing on trying to change our kamran-- campaign finance laws are so temperamental right now to the

economic proposal and that's where i hope we will get within the next few months. >> host: you're in the same senate class as bernie sanders, a senator from vermont who has exceeded just about everyone's expectations perhaps including his own. why do you think he has managed to strike a chord? >> guest: bernie sanders speaks from the heart and i came into the senate with him. we are friends and we have worked together on a number of things and i'm not that surprised because he is someone who has spoken from the heart and has a strong grassroots following and i just look at this as not as a negative. i look as a positive that we have a robust, interesting primary going on and i think hillary clinton made clear from the beginning that she met what she said that it will not be a coronation, that there will be debates and contested primary.

that's what's happening and i will say there are major differences between the democratic side of the republican side and i see some more similarities in the views on the democratic side, but i also-- that attacks have been so caustic. putting their cell phone numbers out on tv, for example, that's more than a prank. these kinds of things, i think, are important as we look forward as we get to one candidate on our side. >> host: if you want to have a robust interesting primary on the democratic side, will be lucid by having democratic vice president joe biden run. dc he will will run? >> guest: i have a lot of respect for the vice president. he is loved by all of us and he's come to state many times and i think you will have to make his own decision based on what he wants to do in ways family wants them to do. >> host: you mentioned jesse ventura earlier in the

conversation and who is kind of in his ways a predecessor of donald trump and it's an outsider who manages to get the attention and support of a lot of voters and we will see what happens with donald trump's campaign, but what you think is behind donald trumps surprising appeal on the republican side, but with a lot of americans? >> guest: as i point out in my book i was actually at the front line when just he first got elected, when he signed and his supporters would be in the back of the line and we were a lot less funded. i was running for county prosecutor and he was running for governor and we somehow always got to the back of the parade and his people would have the signs that say retaliate in 98, and i think that kind of sentiment captures how some people are understanding the feeling about institutions and there are people that are mad at governments, meta- business and there are people that just be left behind and you can see that

with the income inequality and what's happening in this country, so i think in that way that has fueled some of this of the donald trump and we will call it a phenomenon, but i think it's really terms of how people are feeling and as i said earlier i went to get to the debate stage because i would have the candidates talk about what are your real solutions between the two's parties and what will really help people. the thing i would say about the jesse trump comparison is that jesse came on really at the end. i was with him. he was running a good campaign route the year, but he really didn't catch people attention until after the state fair. then in minnesota that's the end of august in case you didn't catch it and then the other thing is that jesse, while he was productive he didn't say that things about his opponents in the same way that trump, so there is some comparison, but a lot of differences. >> host: you have had experience in politics, do you think it's

possible that donald trump could be the nominee? >> guest: anything is possible in politics i have seen that in our state and i don't rule anything out. i think the fact that he now has said that he would not run as an independent, which is what ventura did. he was that way when there are two party candidates on either side and now he will run in that republican primary and i think that will be quite a path for him. >> host: your book is called "the senator next door". what is that mean? >> guest: i named it that in part because i wanted to bring back this idea up representing your neighbors, so the fundamental idea of democracy that you get elected by her neighbors either city council or the u.s. senate and you represent your neighbors. you 02 them to act like a neighbor, so if you have someone next to you that you don't always agree with in your neighborhood or you don't really like, you have to find some way to get along and that is not

what has been happening in washington, so i make the case here that there are a lot of good people that went up for good reason and i tell good stories of getting bills done in working across the aisle weather permit was senator hogan in north korea-- dakota or senator mccain. and i make the case that we were to our neighbors, and who we represent, to not act like boxers in the corner of her ring, but to find the common ground in the common line. >> host: you talk about in a way redefining political courage because we think of political courage as one standing up for principles and yielding on the above principles, but you make the argument that there is perhaps more courage to be willing to make economize. >> guest: it does and an example like lindsey graham coming out for soviet---- you got a lot of grief on the right for that or would like for a certain kind of

, that public option debate and i thought it should be a competitive public option became to that a formal care act, which, of course. supported and i got grief on the left for that. there is example after example of the people who show courage, in my mind, when they're willing to stand next to someone they don't always agree with and come up with a combo drive instead of just going to a chamber and giving a speech alone. but, that has turned out in these recent days to be pretty easy to do. what's hard to do with your own base, is to try to find a way that you can reach common ground. >> host: a lot of americans look at washington and say-- they throw up their hands and say that the dysfunctional capital. how is that ability or the willingness to make optimizes to get things done, how did that get lost in-- and is there a way to bring about? >> guest: i think first of all is the way the money works, it's a denture memo, rise because

with the independent expenditures in citizens united, which is why support a constitutional amendment and anything we can do to reverse that decision come at the money has to go to either the independent expenditures, individuals who want you to get things done in the happens all the time. someone that does that, that's her base of support, but the money tends to go to the extreme and they want you to be there and they don't want you to cross over and so that they believe a problem. the second problem is just the way it works now with social media that we love and that's how we get our message is out dreck the two are citizens, but rumors and things spread again from one side to the other and a sometimes written up and sponsored by interest groups that also the media, of course, not every discussion is like this on our appearance today and a lot of the discussion are people screaming at each other going back and forth and that is in encouraged and you get a lot of attention like donald trump

and you get a lot of attention when you act like that and when you tend to be more consolatory and it doesn't mean you don't stand your ground. one of the things i love and david brooks new book is he talks about what moderation means and it's not necessarily the middle of two points, it's unnecessarily your character when he talks about right-- dwight eisenhower, but john mccain doesn't exactly have that moderate character, but it's whether in politics you can see inside the other person views whether or not you can put yourself in their shoes and try to figure out where that point, ground is. if this idea that you can stand your ground, and look for common ground. i think that has been missing and i think some of it involves the way politics is no longer just, let's try to figure this out. every single thing we do is covered by a second on buzz feed or linked in a tweet and it's an

anvil-- it's unbelievable, so it's harder to find those moments, yet as i tell in the book there are great stories of people that the immigration immigration go in the senate that's where people came together. >> host: but it's divided in the house. >> guest: we have a roadmap for the next president read it got done in the senate it was not easy and people took grief on both sides. you have the recent infrastructure bill that i just brought up that is a great example, so you have those examples of courage and my own personal experience with that as well as others and i think it's important for citizens to know that happens and reward that. >> host: in the wake of the supreme court decision including the unprecedented amount of money being spent in political campaigns, there is more money is not disclose where you are not sure who is putting the money up. when you're a us senator, how much time and attention does the prospect of raising money for your next campaign, how big a world does that play in your day-to-day life.

>> guest: it's nothing like some of these are dealing with independents expenditures. so come i tell the story here that me i started just having never raise more than $500 a person in a local das race and suddenly having to raise 10 million and i literally ended up having to-- i tried to call people nationally and no one called me back. finally, i when they give it up in august because no one was calling back and i went through every old rolodex-- do you remember those-- and every book i could find directly raised $17000 from an ex-boyfriend. as my husband points out, it's expanding base and so you're given an environment and you have to find a way to survive and that's how i look at it. i do not let it dominate my days to read i have been fortunate enough to have strong and pain

for the real grassroots orientation that made a difference and i've reached out a lot of casiano. i have not had to have those kinds of major partisan warfare's, but it's not to say that for those races that do, it can be up to the fight. you have to be. >> host: you mentioned all franken calling you after he read your book. when he was elected, some of the senate leaders take you decide to give you some advice noting you with the senior senator from minnesota, but that with a celebrity compatriot that thinga challenge. >> guest: i had been there just to have years and i just got used to be in a senator and it's hard for any new senator coming in and suddenly my other senator is a celebrity and they talk about their experience. >> host: who talk to you? >> guest: schumer and berman-- chuck's schumer had hillary clinton as his other senator and

dick durbin had barack obama, so they come in the what it was like and it's not as easy as you think having them be your constituents. i said i can handle it and it allculminated in us getting on a plane once with a flight attendant and she announces she's from the south. well, i'll be we have the liberty's on the plane, mr. and mrs. al frankan treat everyone laughed and al said no, no, she's the other senator and she says how cool is this husband-and-wife senators. it's never easy. >> guest: i had to say that's the worst southern accent i've never done. >> host: the current issues converses dealing with prospective iranian deal. it looks like the presidency is guarantee to be able to put the deal in effect and maybe there will be a filibuster that

prevents about. are you a supporter and are you uncomfortable with the idea that this very important agreement will go into effect because a minority of the senate is going to back it even though a majority of the congress opposes it? >> guest: well, first of all, there was agreement, a bipartisan agreement the tween senator corker and senator cardin about the rules of the game here and how this would work and that like any other boat in the senate on a major issue we voted basically with that 60% threshold. and that is how it has worked since i was elected. has a proposed changing that? yeah, i would like to, but those are the rules that were set for this bill and i have proposed changing it overall. so, what it looks like we will have-- i don't know what the

exact number will be, but it will be over 40 senators that approve of this agreement. if you even put it forward as a motion to approve it wouldn't get up to 60. if you put it as a-- i'm sorry, if you put it as a motion to disapprove it would not get over that 60 vote threshold. however you did it it would not get to those numbers, so it's like any other bill that we have and not only that it was negotiated with republicans about what that process would be and we have followed that process. so, that would be my first answer and the second is that this was agreement the president made. congress got i ran to the table. there is no doubt about that with the sanctions and i think that is why you see congressional involvement kilted technically, the involvement would not have to take place to read i was when i thought it was important and made an agreement on how we should do and that is what's happening. last, i hope there will be a

bipartisan agreement on another package of proposals, aid to israel, more security, tracing the money that goes back to iran and other things and i'm hoping that will happen. it has to happen. >> host: i think it distresses some americans to look at this debate can see that just about every republican will oppose it. on most every democrat is going to support it. although, there are some prominent democrats who will not and it's not an issue that you think would nessie-- with split on this partisan lines to read what is it say about our politics? >> guest: i think traditionally foreign-policy has not been partisan, but it has become a little more that way. we certainly see with issues about a. although, you always have summer publicans going to wait used to be in realizing foreign aid is important our country security and a lot less expensive than a military involvement. i do have again the people come together and both agree on a

process and i think part of that was knowing in and, this might break down on party lines. so, i would go back to that fundamental reason, the idea we did come up with a process that was bipartisan and that i'm hoping after this vote there will be a package of things that are bipartisan because traditionally that has been important to our country. >> host: it's more of a tradition of funding the government and that would break along party lines to read we have. september and the government is not funded for the fiscal year that starts october 1. what are the odds you think there will actually be another government shut down this fall? >> guest: i don't think those odds are great and i'm hopeful-- i've heard from republican leaders and i know there leaders like senator cruise that played an instrumental role in that it not go that well in terms of the reaction of the market people. so, i thought mitzvah, recently

said that the issue of defining of the planned parenthood that you would need a new president to do that and i think that is some acknowledgment that if that was given as a reason to shut the government down that that probably wouldn't work and so i'm hoping that it means there will be adventism and we certainly saw in the negotiations on the highway bill we recently had and we saw some pragmatism on the way that speaker boehner in the medicare payments beginning of the year. so, my hope is that we can get through this and come up with an agreement with that said, on our side with his pre-important that you have, that we try to change sequestration and try to do something that is fiscally responsible and involves both the domestic and military side. we have done so much of our budgeting-- has been and i have

supported some of these and they have been something like three to one, four to one cuts to revenue and all those reports, the bipartisan work suggest things like one to one or more likely to to one and we've exceeded that with the cuts to revenue, so the long term as we look at tax reform, how we will move our country forward we need to get in that range as we look at reducing our deficit. >> host: there are five senators running for president, four republicans and one democrat. how much affect-- doesn't have an effect on the debate that we will see the small? >> guest: i think it does. he see mitch mcconnell dealing with people that are ready for presidents who has ted cruz did back in september, call everyone back and tell the story back, call everyone back with both leaders say they could go home and to vote on some constitutional vote to have of his own party ended up opposing current half of his own party including mcconnell and to be

that is showmanship to read what everything about the issue, that was an issue that was not going to be victorious and we have some important things to do with confirming very important positions. we had and if your bills that had to be passed and we were off doing that and that was to make a point. not to get something done. i think yet seen that time and time again on some of these issues including some of the issues with the revision, the important changes the had to be made to the patriot act, with grandpa. the way it's done with tv ads in the capital blowing up, come to a sunday showdown, that is designed for presidential campaign, not governing. >> host: you are marching in a labor day parade in minnesota. >> guest: that is on the cusp of minnesota's iron range, great town. >> host: there were people on the sidelines shouting you for

president carried what you think about that. >> guest: i love my job right now and that's why i have called the book, "the senator next door", and there are a lot of people running for president and i'm happy doing my job. >> host: saying i love my job right now is not-- >> guest: i'm not ready for presidents. if i wanted to i would call the book born to lead or something like that. >> host: i was make a list of the next generation of democratic officeholders who might be considered for president or maybe running for national office and you have the senator from new york, cory booker, the new jersey senator, the california attorney general pamela harris, the castro brothers from texas now that-- one thing that struck me was how diverse the group is. and didn't intend to make a diverse. it's just that every one of those people i mentioned is

either hispanic, african-american or a female. do you think that the time has come when democrats will no longer nominate a ticket that is to not hispanic or white male? are we had a point where there will be next occasion of diversity on the national democratic ticket? >> guest: i never like to say it has to be a way, but i think we're heading into that time and i will be the choice of whoever our nominee is an our party. but come i think when you look at the democratic party and there is no doubt about this we are diverse party to read our policies bring in diversity. immigration reform, support for that and i think you see a party that brings a new people that has been a good party for women and a lot of the issues women care about, the pocketbook issue, child care issue, family medical leave issues and so that's why i think you will see more and more diversity on the democratic ticket and i would be surprised indeed, if it was just

again what we have seen in the past, which is the white man. i think you'll see a difference on this ticket-- by the way, it was not always like that. who picked a woman? walter mondale. >> host: only time there has been diversity on the democratic national ticket except for the two elections with barack obama, of course. >> guest: of course, but i was looking at the women's part of it and he's really one. >> host: thinking about your political career as a kerry prosecutor, us senator, can you name one achievement that you think i'm so proud of this and this is the thing i'm most proud of as a political achievement. >> guest: i think it was the work we did on white-collar crime and the fact that we basically decided in those cases are complex and iran an office of 400 people. we had the major murder cases, property crimes, drugged cases, but i made the decision that a lot of his time was after 911,

and us attorneys office understandably minnesota, was involved in one of the cases with the missing hijacker, the guy that was actually caught by some pilots in minnesota who is in jail, and so they were busy and focus on that. we took on more and more white-collar cases 20 with them and then in our own office and i came to believe it doesn't matter how someone commits a crime whether it's with a crowbar or a computer, it's silly crime and while this cases are complicated going after a judge like we did when i was a chief prosecutor, a guy that had stolen $400,000 from a mentally disabled woman he was on the second highest court in our state and i said that we do our job without fear or favor. we go after someone whether they are running a business or whether they are standing on a street corner doing drugs and so we made that a major emphasis and i realized helped not only to make people understand that you can't have two systems of

justice, one for the rich and powerful and one for everyone else when we would get convictions, when we would win those cases, but also had racial implications because you close your eyes to those like all cases and mostly involving people who are not of color and then you are spending all of your time going after people of color and that contributes to the racial inequity in the system. i was also part of the work we did on doing a different way of photo identification where working with the innocence project that turns out that it leads to less misidentification, which is a major problem through the work we did on dna and other things to read we worked really hard to be fair in our system and to kind of-- i would always play with myself this race game, should we plead out, shall we drop it and i would think what if the defendant was white instead, what if the victim was a person color instead.

it wasn't always necessary, but you want to try to be as colorblind as you can in these cases. >> host: finally, in thinking about your career so far, tell me about the biggest disappointment that you try to do and failed. not that you won't try again, but this is what you say is your regret. >> guest: biggest regret i have right now from a policy standpoint is that we have not been able to move some of these prescription drug mails that i have, the drug prices have been escalating and with a situation where drug companies are now paying generic companies not to put their products on the markets. estimates are about 3 billion in 10 years for taxpayers, somewhere in that read to 4 billion to read either bill with chuck grassley 35 a bill which on to allow for imports of drugs from canada to create, titian and that hasn't stopped to read i have a bill with a number of democrats i am leading to negotiations for medicare prices in the husband stopped.

i am just not going to give up, but at some point we will have to change some these policies. >> host: thank you for joining us to talk about your new book called "the senator next door". >> guest: thank you so much. >> that was afterwards, but tv signature program in which authors of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalist, public policymakers and others familiar with their material. afterwards there is every week and on book tv at 10:00 p.m. saturday, 12 and 9:00 p.m. sunday and 12:00 a.m. on monday. you can also watch afterwards online or go to book tv.org and click on afterwards:

who organizes this event, which i hr heard of, called me a few months ago and said let me tell you about freedom fest. and i would really like you to come to freedom fest and talk about what is the national pastime. football, baseball, basketball, soccer, what? and he had gone on -- i asked him last night, why me? he had gone on the internet, and he googled. he wanted somebody in something other than, you know, the political stuff. be and so that's how