Town Hall with Klobuchar; Battle for Democrats' Message
AVLON: Breaking news. Haiti's foreign minister confirms to CNN that five Americans have been arrested on conspiracy charges, but they've not been formally charged by Haitian authorities. It comes after more than a week of deadly riots protesting Haiti's president and calling on him to step down over alleged corruption. CNN has reached out to the U.S. State Department and we are awaiting its reaction.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is spending Presidents ' Day in New Hampshire as her campaign enters its second week. Tonight, Klobuchar will take part in a CNN town hall moderated by Don Lemon. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live in Manchester with more. What's going on there, Suzanne?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn. There's a lot of excitement here, as you can imagine. You see the stage just behind me. That is where Don Lemon is going to be talking to Amy Klobuchar. But also in this small, intimate setting, she's going to be hearing and getting questioned fielded from students, from faculty, from Democratic activists. And seeing her up close for the last couple of weeks, get a real impression, a sense of how she'll respond. If you ask her about immigration reform, she loves to tell stories. She'll tell the story about her grandfather who went to Ellis Island and was rejected and then later accepted U.S. citizenship two weeks before World War II and how that meant the world to her. If you ask her about everybody participating in this democracy, she'll talk about her husband John growing up with five siblings, all six of them in a trailer and then piling into a station wagon and having to count off each one of those kids so they didn't leave anybody behind. That everybody has to be included. Those are the kinds of things that she loves to do to make those personal connections. She's travel with her daughter Abigail, her husband John. And you won't hear so much about Minnesota and ice (ph) as you will hear about heartland economics. And that is the idea, that people in rural areas should have education, have jobs, health care, just like the rest of the United States, the rest of Americans. Those are the voters that she is really focusing on. That is her greatest strength. And, Alisyn, I would put money on this. She will make a joke about not being in the snow. That how wonderful it will be indoors. That she didn't bring her snow globe. It is one of those metaphors that she uses for showing that, yes, she has grit, she has tenacity, she's able to handle kind of those tough circumstances, including the president. Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, she has grit, tenacity, but no hat. That is what I felt she needed for that announcement.</s>MALVEAUX: I -- and gloves. I don't know how she did it, but --</s>CAMEROTA: I don't either.</s>MALVEAUX: We'll -- we'll hear about it for sure.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, Suzanne, thank you very much for that preview. You can watch Senator Amy Klobuchar in our CNN town hall with Don Lemon tonight at 10:00 p.m. in New Hampshire only on</s>CNN. AVLON: Now, all nine 2020 Democratic contenders, some wearing hats, vowing to go to battle for main street over the interest of Wall Street. But that rallying cry could pose a challenge. CNN's Athena Jones explains why.</s>REP. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Part of my goal in running for president is to make sure that no community feels left behind.</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's become a rallying cry for Democrats, fight for main street over the interests of Wall Street.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When bankers who crashed our economy get bonuses, but the workers who brought our country back can't even get a raise, that's not our America.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The problem we've got right now in Washington is that it works great for those who have got money to buy influence. And I'm fighting against that. And you bet, it's going to make a lot of people unhappy.</s>JONES: A growing chorus of Democratic contenders is now answering the call more than a decade after the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. A crisis sparked in part by big banks making risky mortgage investments.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should close those tax loopholes designed by and for the wealthy and bring down our debt and make it easier for workers to afford child care, housing and education.</s>SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to run this campaign on the power of the people.</s>JONES: Seeking to burnish their populist credentials on this front, all nine of the Democratic candidates who have entered the 2020 fray so far have pledged to reject money from corporate political action committees.</s>GILLIBRAND: We really need to make every effort we can to get rid of the corporate money and dark money that is flowing into politics. And my effort to ban corporate PAC checks is just a first step in that direction.</s>JONES: These candidates are mindful of the lessons of the 2016 primaries, when Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders seized on Hillary Clinton's paid speeches before banks like Goldman Sachs to paint her as too close to the industry.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Secretary Clinton was busy giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $225,000 a speech.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I stood up against the behaviors of the banks when I was a senator. I called them out on their mortgage behavior.</s>JONES: The reverberations from that debate still being felt as the 2020 race gets underway. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand took to Twitter last month to respond to a report about her outreach to Wall Street executives to gauge support for her campaign by laying out her record taking on the financial industry. She touted her support for a financial transaction tax and separating commercial and investment banking, as well as her two votes against the 2008 bank bailout. But she argues the problem is bigger than Wall Street.</s>GILLIBRAND: It's not just about one industry. It's actually about how the country works. It is a system that is deeply rigged for the people who have enormous amounts of money and power. It is the powerful interests that control everything. And that's what we have to take on.</s>JONES: It's a move that reflects how ties to Wall Street could pose a challenge for some Democrats, particularly for candidates such as Gillibrand and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who have accepted millions in campaign contributions from employees of a securities and investment industry in recent years.</s>WARREN: Our democracy is not for sale.</s>JONES: And opens a potential line of attack for rivals.</s>WARREN: By the way, if we truly believe that, then we also need to end the unwritten rule of politics that says that anyone who wants to run for office has to start by sucking up to a bunch of rich donors on Wall Street and powerful insiders in Washington.</s>JONES: Athena Jones, CNN, New York.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, she makes a good point there. You know, that's how you play the game. I mean you need the grassroots small funding and you need the Wall Street funding. So --</s>AVLON: Well, and I think now talking about it honestly builds a backlash and people saying, look, you know, don't just look at the donations, look at my record. But there's appropriate scrutiny of that process.</s>CAMEROTA: That's a tell (ph).</s>AVLON: So, here we go.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. Here's what else to watch today.</s>ON SCREEN TEXT: 12: 00 p.m. ET, protest against national emergency declaration. 4:00 p.m. ET, President Trump speaks at FIU on Venezuela. 10:00 p.m. ET, CNN town hall with Sen. Klobuchar in NH.</s>AVLON: The president not laughing at "Saturday Night Live's" opening sketch. The threat he tweeted after the show, next.