Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar took a swipe at fellow Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke — saying she "wasn't born to run" for the White House.
“It was probably more when I got to college. When I was growing up, in high school, that's not what girls thought they were going to do,” the Democratic senator said during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“My parents, I think, thought it was a possibility. But I really didn't. And so for me, it's something that’s happened over time, as I've realized I can do things,” Klobuchar reportedly said. “I can get elected to the secretary-treasurer of my high school class. I can move on from there. And so I think it's something that I didn't have from birth.”
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Her reported comments appear to reference O'Rourke's statements about being "born" for a White House run in a glowing Vanity Fair profile that has drawn criticism.
"I want to be in it," O'Rourke said in the magazine's cover story. "Man, I'm just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment."
The Texan's comments to Vanity Fair, along with his decision to rule out a second Senate run last month, have been called emblematic of his white male privilege, amid a race with several viable female and African-American candidates, by critics within the Democratic Party.
Former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke laughs during a live interview with Oprah Winfrey on a Times Square stage at "SuperSoul Conversations," in New York, on Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
“If a woman was presented with a similar choice: Do that less ambitious, but better-for-the-party thing, versus more ambitious but longer-shot thing, I don’t see people being super understanding when she takes the latter,” Jess McIntosh, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton aide, told The New York Times.
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Klobuchar continued, saying, “But no, I wasn't born to run for office, just because growing up in the '70s, in the middle of the country, I don't think many people thought a girl could be president. I wasn't born to run. But I am running.”
Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.
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