Sen. Amy Klobuchar says work across the aisle is what's needed in White House

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar brought her Midwest values and successful legislative track record to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills Tuesday, hoping California voters will pay attention. The top budget priority for her campaign is infrastructure.

"You make the case for infrastructure with traffic jams, you make the case for infrastructure with rural broadband, the fact that parts of California and parts of the rest of America do not have the access they need to broadband. It's real hard to do if you have an infrastructure system that was built for the last century," said Klobuchar.

Voter Hector Soloman-Valdez was allowed by his boss to miss work in order to check out Klobuchar's speech at the Santa Monica Public Library. He supports her plan on infrastructure.

"If we can't move around in our communities, we can't get to work, we can't get to our children's schools, so it's definitely a priority and I hope Washington starts working on that. She seemed honest with her answers. 'This is who I am, this is what my background is,' she was even honest about her position in the race," said Soloman-Valdez.

Klobuchar called herself an "underdog."

Klobuchar also attended a Tuesday night book event in Beverly Hills and was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

She pointed out how the female candidates in the race have been criticized for being tough, but you don't hear the male candidates receiving the same critique.

"To get that credibility, you have to show that you can do something besides just, you know, showing up and voting on things," she said.

Policy took center stage, allowing Klobuchar to explain why she's not in favor of free college but supports two-year community college and expanding Pell grants.

"I am a co-sponsor of Green New Deal, and I think I'm realistic that you may not be able to get to that place in just 10 years, but we have to harness the energy of people because this is a crisis, climate change," she said.

Klobuchar responded to some controversy she stirred up over the weekend while campaigning in Iowa. She told Iowa voters that during President Donald Trump's inauguration, the late John McCain, who she was seated next to, was reciting to her the names of dictators.

In a tweet, McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, asked Klobuchar on behalf of her family to be, "respectful to all of us and leave my fathers legacy and memory out of presidential politics."

Klobuchar didn't apologize for sharing the story about McCain.

"We led the bill to bring in less expensive drugs from Canada and those are bills I talk about all the time, so I'm going to continue to honor his memory by continuing the work we we did together," said the Minnesota senator.

Fourteen presidential candidates will attend the California Democratic Party Convention in San Francisco this weekend. Not slated to attend is former Vice President Joe Biden.

"I think mid-western principles are trustworthiness, loyalty, hard work. Those are values we need to bring back to our political conversation," said California voter Jacquiline Wagner.

Wagner said she hopes to see as many candidates as possible in person but hopes the discourse in a crowded Democratic field stays civil.