Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) defended her inability to name Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Univision earlier this month, saying such interviews on the campaign trail aren’t meant to be a game of “Jeopardy!”
“Well, first of all, I would like to give my greetings to President Andre Manuel López Obrador,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a town hall Tuesday evening, mispronouncing the president’s first name.
“When that happened, for what it’s worth, I had been in the Senate all day, we had six votes, including a resolution to be a check on the president so he doesn’t go pell-mell into war with Iran,” she added, noting that she had then given the interview in Nevada and attended two candidate forums, finishing up around 3 a.m.
When asked about former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who correctly identified Obrador, Klobuchar said, “So, I would say to the mayor, this isn’t like a game of ‘Jeopardy!’ This is about, to me, experience, and I have so much respect for him and his experience, but my experience is different.”
Both Klobuchar and billionaire candidate Tom Steyer were unable to name Obrador when asked by Univision interviewer Guad Venegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses, the first contest in a state with a significant number of Latino voters.
“What I will tell you is that I will visit Mexico in the first 100 days,” Klobuchar said in the Univision interview. Steyer responded with “I forget” when asked to name Mexico’s president.