the correspondents dinner, and she was quite funny. along with our franken from minnesota. she is definitely interested. she was not going to challenge hillary clinton, but she has totainly laid the groundwork run any the 2020 or 2024. she is respected by her colleagues. they say she is a very average every day person, and a lot of people cannot laugh at themselves. she has got into a lot of androversy on capitol hill, i think a lot of women are interested in succeeding hillary clinton whether she wins or not. so i think low bouchard,

sometime in her career, she is going to run for president. steve: thank you. from january 2014, part of the c-span american profile series, senator klobuchar:, and the interview is available on our website, by the way, at c-span.org. sen. klobuchar:, when did you first think about running for backe? sen. klobuchar:: then, girls did not run for president, but i would be secretary/treasurer of the high i coordinatedand the lollipop drive to raise money for the high school prom, and it may not have been a major ideological battle, but we did get enough money for the prom, and i was able to have it at a junior year, and when i

was a senior, the juniors failed, and we had the prom in a , for that would likely not my career, and a word with walter mondale. a big-time was when my daughter was born, and she was very sick and could not swallow. at the time, a mother could only stay in the hospital for 24 hours, and she was sick. she was in intensive care. they did not know what was wrong, so i got kicked out. she was in the hospital a long , and one of the things i did was legislate and work for a bill.

to guarantee afford to get our hospital stay. to get something done. i took on some of the companies that were trying to slow it down . i think i brought six pregnant women to the conference committee, because they were trying to have it later, and they outnumbered the lobbyists to-one. and whether it would take effect now or in a year, all of the pregnant women raise their hands and said now. steve: your daughter is how old now? sen. klobuchar:: our daughter is 18 years old. she had a stomach to and got better and better and did very well in school, and we're pretty proud of her. steve: he became county attorney. on of the things you worked was to make sure that drunk driving was a felony. my question is, why was that

even an issue? was one ofhar:: it the states where it was not a felony. and of it was the spirit, some of it was the fluke, but we did not have the strong drunk driving laws. there is a notorious story about one of our members taking to the house floor when they were trying to pass it, saying if we passes, how will my's constituents -- my constituents get home in the morning? a best case to use when i testified before the legislature, and that is one where a guy had been arrested something like 16 or 18 times for drunk driving, and when the cops stopped him in minnesota they said, why did you move here, and he said in colorado, it would have been a felony. i would have been in jail. it took two years, but we pass that bill that made it clear that if you had more than three

a felony.ould be steve: where did you grow up? sen. klobuchar:: plymouth. sister, and we had really a nice family. we had family trips to the black hills and the grand tetons. we never went anywhere that did not involve a tent or a camper, and we went to public high schools my entire life. second, my mom taught grade until she was 70 years old. steve: she recently passed away? yes, and inar:: their own ways, they performed public service. my mom was a teacher, and i was died,ed of that when she and the was a visitation, and people at i did not even know came, and there was one family with a grown child who was howbled, and they recalled

my mom's favorite unit sheet taught in second grade, she as a monarchp butterfly, and she would carry a sign that said, to mexico or bust, and that she said she would go through shopping afterwards because it was so funny, but what she never told me until i found out from this family is that she went to this particular store because this kid that she had in second grade was now 22 years old, and he worked banking groceries at that store, and he loved that monarch butterfly unit, so she would always go back to that store and give him a big hug and she walked through the line with her groceries, and that family came to tell me that story, so it is just an example of what teachers do all of the time and how she loved her job and what she did. steve: you have been pretty candid about your fathers alcoholism. what have you learned from that? he grew up, and

his dad and my uncle works 1500 feet underground. there is a lot of jointing in the culture there, and he was newspaperman, a lot of jointing in that culture, and it some point, he just started drinking too much. pointyhe started drinking too much. he would finally get there. it was things like that that made it hard. i remember fights, taking the keys away from him when i was older when we would drive up north. dwis when i had 2 was in junior high. it didn't mean much to me that. before i got married in 1993, he got his third dwi. at that point it had meant something. he had stopped drinking on and off, then got good treatment. he changed his life around.

13ause happy, married for and doing -- married for the third time, and doing well at age 85. thereyou described that is a joy within you and that you have an eye for the absurdities of life. sen. klobuchar: to survive in washington you have to have some eyes of the absurdities of life. what he meant by that, it's important to take your work seriously, but not necessarily take yourself seriously. you have to stand back little and realize that this is just life, and people are going to do crazy things. you try to find common ground and get things done. certainly he and i on our travels, bicycling all around the world, through red square. we bicycle in slovenia looking for our relatives, in which he was so proud, because he thought he found his relatives. a man said there was one surname

in this town, and had won wars against the turks, and my dad is sustainable proud. visit, is there another family? they said yes, they were minstrels. they were always drinking and amendment get drunk and plays guitar. late into the night, he would offer to sell his house for the equivalent of one dollar. one night someone took him up on it and he went on it and went back to america. [laughter] having he's experiencing with my dad, who has the humor of seeing these things and writing about it, but seeing the joy in ordinary lives. that really taught me a lot growing up. host: b has been described as a legendary sports columnist. sen. klobuchar: he started out in sports, and did that while i was growing up. at some point around 1965, he got a full-time column.

you would write about politics, consumer stories, helping someone that had called it. but he did crazy things. he looked for the abominable snowman. 3% in there in california. they sent him to sweden, because minnesota is so scandinavian, -- when they changed sides of the road they were driving. the swedes had deputized a neighbor for every street corner. there was no problem except for a norwegian truckdriver on the wrong side. he went from this mining life, where he worked 1000 feet underground to going to interview everyone from mike ditka to ginger rogers to ronald reagan. through journalism he saw the world. host: did you meet your husband? [laughter] sen. klobuchar: through friends.

we first met at a pool hall,, then went to see "wayne's world." that was our first date. he grew up in a trailer home until he was in the sixth grade. he had five brothers. his mother had identical twin boys. they had six kids in a trailer home. they eventually moved to a small house, and are an incredible his family. -- and incredible family. he is a lawyer and cares a lot about the world around him. he teaches lawsuit teaches law school. i don't think we could have done job, if heving this did not share a lot of the workload. host: would you describe your daughter abigail?

sen. klobuchar: humerus. -- humorous. she sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me that this book that she never cared about that i wrote in college, about the politics between the building of the dome stadium. i never got her to read it, and she found they were using it at brown university still. i get $.68 per book. [laughter] she sent me an e-mail saying they were using it at brown. i said, how did you find that out? and she said, some guy named david something. i got the typical 18-year-old freshman e-mail back, i knew him in middle school. he was my prom date. duh. she has always tended to keep me real. the best example in the senate was when i was going to take her to target to buy a swimsuit for her pool party for the eighth grade. they had a sudden vote, i think

on some nsa national security issue in the senate. my husband had to take her. i picked up the cell phone as i walked in the senate, and she is in tears, mom, this every can't wear a bikini at the pool party, but you can wear tankinis. and dad doesn't understand the difference between a bikini and tankini. and i said, get him on the phone right now! and as i did that, i want head into lindsey graham. headfirst into lindsey graham. i don't think that was a good balance. you never do it perfectly. anybody that says that they do is wrong. but having my husband there has been a great blessing to help. biography,ur summit ulis.. what is that about?

sen. klobuchar: on the dome stadium? is called overcook --it is called "opening the dome." college, i read a book on the cuban missile crisis, which seems like a difference topic [laughter] but i used the same analysis. first you look at the macro level, the world of pro sports and cities courting sports teams. that the second part was how you weird alliances taking place in the case of the stadium to get it done. the third was implementation. i talked to those deciding with where it would be located at the time, whether minneapolis or in bloomington, minnesota. they finally chose minneapolis.

fact forget about the that the stadium collapsed a few times. that we would stop hearing the jokes in minnesota that you shouldn't wear a pointed hat and the top rope. -- in the tope row. it has been a great stadium. that is where we won two world series. precious moments for minnesota sports. >> you are in the u.s. senate, your first week, and you walk into the men's room. sen. klobuchar: is a correct story. now with all of our 20 women we , finally have had a traffic jam in the women's bathroom. that was the first time in american history. i really didn't know my way around when i was brand-new. i've been a prosecutor elected for eight years. i did walk right into the men's bathroom. i believe that john kerry was coming out of the same time so i

didn't catch him in the bathroom. my other thing the first day was the official lunch in the lbj room with this major portrait of lyndon johnson looming above us. i got a salad and a cup of soup and i'm ready to dive in. patty murray gets up and grabs my arm and says you just took the entire bowl of thousand island dressing. you're about to eat it. that's what we do in minnesota. it was another example of women coming to each other's rescue. it was a hard adjustment for me. hard adjustment for my family. we came out here with the shower curtain from college. i got to make some very good friends here. i love my work. i love being on the commerce committee.

as a prosecutor, i got to manage an office of 400 people which was actually very fulfilling. but i also had worked on legislation in that area. agriculture, which i was very interested in. and later joined the judiciary committee. steve: why did you decide to run for the senate? sen. klobuchar: we had an open dseta. we had an open seat. mark dayton decided not to run. i had loved my job as a prosecutor and i made some really good changes to the office and got positive results. i had seen what you could do to make a difference in government holding people accountable and publishing what happens when you got things done. i wanted to take that kind of philosophy to somewhere i know everybody believes things are still broken but i have this optimistic belief that you can get things done. that drove me from a professional standpoint.

from a substantive standpoint it , was all about standing up for people. doing things for the good of the state and the good of the country. little did i know when i got to the senate about a year later that bridge would collapse in the middle of the summer day. an eight lane highway. i said a bridge shouldn't just fall down in the middle of america. we decided we were going to rebuild it. we were able to get that money in a record amount of time. a dozen people lost their lives. many more were injured. it was a reminder of what it means to represent an area. the little girl who died in a swimming pool. sat on a drain that was defective and was dismembered. when she died her dad said the

one thing i want to get done is this pool safety bill. he believed in democracy. he believed that a freshman senator was going to be able to get a build on that of been sitting around congress for five years. that moment when we were able to attach it to the energy bill and make pool safety a reality. there have been much less bad pools from these faulty equipment. that moment when i got to call him from the cloakroom is a brand-new senator and say we pass that bill was probably the proudest moment i had. steve: the approval rating for congress is pretty low. some say congress is broken. how do you view the senate? can you have working relationships?

sen. klobuchar: i hold hubert humphrey's seat. i asked for his desk. they mistakenly gave me gordon humphrey's desk, senator from new hampshire. one day when jeanne shaheen had come to the senate and i told the story and i said he signed his name. in the new congress they had corrected the error and i had hubert humphrey's desk. through it all hubert humphrey was optimistic. he believed you could get things done. that is what guides me. i have found the best in my colleagues. i headed the national prayer breakfast at one point. at least half the senate comes once a year and does their life story. i work with the women senators across the aisle. i tried to find the common ground.

whether it was passing a bill with senator blunt or senator inhofe. on adoption. making sure our forest products are safe from formaldehyde which i did with senator crapo. bringing in high skilled workers which i did with senator hatch. we were voted the least likely senators to get into a scandals so we did a lot of bills together. try to find that common ground on an issue in an understanding of the person i go from there. it really helped me not only to get things done for my state but to feel good about the work that we do every day. it gives you some hope which we have now seen. i would argue that in fits and starts it has been borne out in the last year. whether it was that moments where the senate passed the bipartisan immigration bill with

marco rubio and to john mccain working with senator durbin and senator menendez and senator hatch and i contribute to that. patty murray and barbara mikulski worked with congressman ryan and others to get that budget done. or the work on the farm bill that senator stabenow has done recently. despite all the fights and the 24/7 tv shout fests, people standing in the opposite corners of the boxing ring, people still find themselves to have the courage to stand next to someone they don't always agree with. that keeps me going. at steve: you have a picture of hubert humphrey and muriel humphrey. they also had this seat when humphrey passed away. did you meet them? sen. klobuchar: my dad covered hubert humphrey. yes. i was able to meet him and i met muriel later and their family

and their sons. one thing people did not realize. in addition to humphrey being passionate. there was a movie about him that showed how much he worked across the aisle. his effervescent manner and how he dealt with people. it really transcended party lines so in that way he is a role model for me. steve: do you enjoy being in the senate? sen. klobuchar: i do. i think it is a place that needs improvement. i think some of the rule changes , while they are tough to deal with, is the way to go. we shouldn't be wasting our time on hours and hours of debate on a person. we should move things along. i think that would make people feel a lot better about themselves in the institution. they would be serving democracy better.

when the president talked in the state of the union about the soldier who was in a coma after sustaining a roadside bomb attack. and then getting to the point where he could be sitting there next to the first lady. the state of the union was a message to everyone. america has never been easy. our democracy has never been easy. it was a message to congress that we have to keep shouldering on. steve: you keep working on equal pay. in 2014, why is that even an issue? sen. klobuchar: you still have situations where women are not treated the same way. look at lily ledbetter. she could not even find out -- was told you don't get a raise , because you can find out what other people were making you don't get to have equal pay. we fixed that. the idea that women should be

paid for the same work that a man does, something most republicans stood up for. the president said we don't want to live in a madman world with discrimination. that was one of the most surprising moments in that state of the union speech. the clout of the women of the senate is changing. it's not just the numbers. we have 20 out of a hundred. it's not sweet 16 anymore. but the jobs that they have. we are eight major committee chairs from budget to intelligence to transportation. major committees chaired by women. i am the chair of the joint economic committee. you get to hold hearings on whether income inequality or the immigration bill or women in manufacturing, it just changes things. because of this, i get to go to the chairman's lunch. i get to see firsthand what is happening.

the women have tended to get reelected. so they chair committees. that is the best thing for changing the way things work around here. susan collins lead that effort to end the shutdown. we had a group of 12-14 of us. half of the group was women. we said here's how we think we should end this. we went to our leaders and we said we are going to go out and get a press conference. you guys can work it out if you want to. this is what we're going to do. i don't think it's a coincidence that half the people were women. steve: how would you describe your ideology? who is amy klobuchar> ? sen. klobuchar: i am somebody that stands up for the people in my state. i am someone who believes we need more civility in washington. if i had to pick one word, it is optimistic for the future, and optimistic for what we can get done. steve: some have said that you would be perfect the u.s.

supreme court. any interest? sen. klobuchar: i love the job that i do now. that was a surprising question. [laughter] in minnesota we've had tragedy with paul wellstone's death. we haven't had people who stayed in the senate for very long. you have to go back to humphrey and mondale, actually. so that means a lot to our state. i have a lot of work i still want to do in the senate. steve: what about the presidency? sen. klobuchar: again, i love the job that i have right now. it looks like hillary clinton may be running on our side and that's very exciting. i'm not making any news here. steve: the new york times said you are among the dozen or so people that could be president. what is your reaction? sen. klobuchar: it's an honor. it is an honor to have people think of you in that way. when other things that i learned you have to keep your eye on , what you are doing now. enjoy what you are doing. be humble about what you're

doing. when i first considered running for office in the minnesota, a lot of people told me i should run for secretary of state which , is a very important job especially in a state that is known for as garrison kaylor , who said said the women are strong and the men are good looking and all the recounts are above average. i am not poo-pooing the job of secretary of state. the job has traditionally been held by a woman. you would not have as much as country because the prosecutor job, that would be a nightmare. but i said, no, i want to do the job that is challenging for me. i said no i want to do the things that i want to do now. and then this other opportunity came up. it is very important that while you are doing your job you like what you are doing in you keep focusing on that. other opportunities open up, that's great. but people who spend their whole time looking for the next job

they can make to a different hell, they always find out that the grass is always greener and armed always do well at what they are doing. they don't enjoy or do well at what they're doing. that's always been my philosophy. steve: what the opportunity comes along for higher office? sen. klobuchar: i appreciate the question. i am going to focus on doing now. i appreciate that you are wearing viking purple. that is very nice. we have faith the vikings are going to emerge again. steve: they have never won the super bowl. sen. klobuchar: yes. my dad wrote a book called will the vikings ever win the super bowl? sadly he wrote it in the early , and it is still relevant 1980's today. steve: yale and the university of chicago. why those schools? sen. klobuchar: that is interesting. i had no connection to the east coast. i got into a lot of schools. i remember my dad really wanted me to stay in minnesota. some editor of the newspaper asked, where are you going?

i said, i'm going to the library. he said no, where are you going to college? i said i don't know yet. i said i got into yale. my dad said that she's not going there. too expensive. the editor said what? , somehow we were able to scrape together the money. at the time it was $10,000. i brought my pink polyester prom dress out there. i've never been to the east coast except for one trip. i brought my pink polyester prom dress and matching shoes. i would often take the greyhound bus back and forth from college to minnesota to save money. it wasn't exactly a glamorous life. i met many good friends there. it really opened up a new worlds for me. a new exposure to the rest of the country. i always want to come back to minnesota. and i always did. eve: is your daughter

interest in politics? sen. klobuchar: my husband said would you be interested in it if your moms job had an approval rating of 10%? i think she really has a keen eye for politics and understands it. she is volunteering in college, helping immigrants learn to read. she is doing the newspaper, writing with a focus on politics. she likes that. who knows. i wanted to do what she wants to do in life, and not director in any which way. it seems like it's going fine. her one comment to me, she felt that walt whitman's poems were too repetitive. [laughter] she is clearly a girl who thinks on her own. : you served for two years with barack obama. what is your relationship with him like personally?

sen. klobuchar: i get along with him well. he is someone who is taken on some major difficult issues. when he got into office have challenging that was. we were losing more jobs in one month and then there were in the state of vermont. his calmness through so many international crises. his perseverance and wanting to bring the troops home from iraq and from afghanistan. he is someone who has been steady in sticking to what he wanted to do. it has been frustrating for him to not get more done. but he got a lot done. if you get this immigration bill done now that you will be able to look back at some major changes he has made in the country. some major social changes. whether it is don't ask don't tell repeal. more his position on gay marriage.

whether the overdose of so many strong women in his cabinet including hillary clinton. -- the emergence of so many strong women in his cabinet including hillary clinton. , his devotion to doing something about keeping the economy going. against a lot of attacks that he gets. i continue to work with him on every issue that comes along. we like it when he comes and visits our state. steve: how often do you get back home? sen. klobuchar: three out of four weekends. sometimes four-out of five. especially with the weather being so lovely in minnesota right now, you don't want to miss it. before we started here, i told you there was a day where we were colder than mars. but that day has passed. we have moved on to warmer pastures. steve: if you have a rare day off what you enjoy doing? sen. klobuchar: if it is in the summer i enjoy bicycling in the , summer. we once bicycled from

minneapolis to jackson hole wyoming. 1100 miles in 10 days. i like going to movies with my husband. we have a lot of fun doing that. i like taking walks. if i had time to check in with my daughter, and if she finally answers the phone, it's just nice to take the time to be outside. even in the winter. steve: who has a bigger sense of humor you or your colleague? sen. klobuchar: you will note that the president declared after my gridiron speech that al , franken was only the second funniest senator from minnesota. that is the word of the president. al franken is incredibly humorous. i think everyone knows that. he also works very hard at his job so you don't really see the humor. he has clearly got a great sense of humor.

steve you: do not always take yourself too seriously. sen. klobuchar: no. it is amazing to have to go one-on-one with al franken at a state roast in minnesota. we sometimes have to do this. my favorite moment was he called me and said he liked my jokes. and i said i like your jokes. he said, you were really good. he said i prepared and you just had to put that together. it was amazing. and i said you were a professional comedian and i was a prosecutor. [laughter] he is a lot of fun to work with. i do think having some people with a little sense of humor in this town can go a long way. steve: senator amy klobuchar, thank you. sen. klobuchar: thank you. it was great to be on. >> this month more c-span's coverage of the 2016 republican and democratic national convention. every saturday night at 8:00

eastern, we look at past conventions and the candidates that when on to win the party's nomination. this saturday we focus on incumbent presidents that ran for reelection. dwight eisenhower at the republican convention in san francisco. in 1964 democratic convention in a leading city with lyndon johnson. richard nixon at the 1972 republican convention in miami beach. to 1980 democratic convention with jimmy carter. in new york city george h.w. bush at the 1992 republican convention.in houston bill clinton in chicago for the 1996 democratic convention. the 2004 republican convention in new york city with george w. bush. for the republican and democratic conventions, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. "q&a" withon c-span, mark green.

that is followed by british preminger david cameron taking questions from members of the house of commons. -- trade representative talks about the global economy and pending trade agreements. ♪ >> this week on wednesday, part one of a two-part interview with former public interest lawyer and politician mark green. mr. greene discusses his book, "bright infinite future" and the memoirs on the progressive ratel. --progressive right. >> you say on your book, that when you were running for mayor of new york city