Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar quickly apologized to Hillary Clinton after making a not-so-subtle dig at her 2016 campaign strategy.
Presidential hopeful Klobuchar revealed during her 2020 announcement on Feb. 10 where her first campaign stop would be: Wisconsin. “Because, as you remember, there wasn’t a lot of campaigning in Wisconsin in 2016,” she stated to reporters at the time. “With me, that changes.”
The reference to the state — which Clinton notably ignored during the 2016 election — was meant as evidence that the moderate senator from the Midwest would run her campaign differently. However, the line drew ire from Clinton’s inner circle and prompted Klobuchar, who had just visited with her three days prior, to reach out to the twice-failed presidential candidate and apologize.
Upon making the offensive remark, Klobuchar conducted damage control by hastily sending Clinton an email and then followed up with an apology over the phone. The senior senator from Minnesota claimed her remark had been misinterpreted and was not meant to be offensive, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
News of the behind-the-scenes apology comes as Klobuchar has faced other uncomfortable headlines since launching her presidential campaign.
Numerous former Klobuchar staffers have accused the Minnesota senator of mistreating employees. Aggrieved former staffers have recounted several examples of her past conduct, such as throwing a binder at an employee during a fit of rage, telling an employee she’d trade three of them for a water bottle and telling a staffer to clean her comb after she used it to eat a salad, among other things.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar declares her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., Feb. 10, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Miller
The alleged mistreatment appears to show in her office. Klobuchar was listed as having the highest staff turnover of any other U.S. senator in a 2018 Politico article titled “The ‘Worst Bosses’ In Congress?” and her reputation led to at least three people turning down an offer to lead her presidential campaign. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders’s Massive 2020 Campaign Haul Is Not Slowing Down)
The negative press, however, doesn’t appear to be hurting the Minnesota senator. A recent survey showed her polling among the top tier of Democratic candidates, taking in 8 percent of registered voters in New Hampshire.
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