Transcript for Sen. Amy Klobuchar 'a liberal who hasn't gone too far left': Jonathan Karl

Our economy is the envy of the world. The rules in our economy have gotten rigged so far in the favor of the rich and powerful. Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades. Wag in America have barely budged. We passed a massive tax cut for working families. Stop handing out enormous tax giveaways to rich people and giant corporations. Two very different views of the economy and the agenda. The president on Tuesday, and Elizabeth Warren her campaign yesterday. The round tablack and Jon, we saw on Tuesday night it's already been engaged right there. The state of the union might not have put out too much about what's going to get accomplished, but it laid out a lot for the president in 2020. And the big theme whi Democrats are essentially socialists. He used the word. Not essentially. That's exactly what he used. You showed Elizabeth Warren and another big announcement, Amy Har. She is expected to announce she's getting into this race. The senator frominnesota. Yeah. Much less fanfare surrounding her, but Amy klobuchar is a liberal in the united States senate who has worked with Republicans and unlike other leaders, she comes from a place that Democrats have to compete.e has won in the state of Minnesota. She won her first race by less than 1% back in 1998. Since then she has never won by less than 20 points in a race in Minnesota, and she is unlike Elizabeth Warren, kamala Harris, she doesn't come out for the big Progressive items. Too far left. There will be more women democratic candidates than men. Jon just hit on what is likely to be a real fault line inside the democratic party between for wont of a better word, centrists and Progressives. Bernie Sanders as well is to the charge of socialists. Donald Trump did a great job at the state of the union of trying to message this issue as a polarizing issue, but what we know about the issues that Progressives push, most americanpport. Medicare for all. 70% of Americans support. A green new deal. 60% of Americans. These are not far left socialist ideals. The idea that a rich American should pay more is not a new idea. We have been here as a country, and so he did a great job of doing what he does, which is messaging scaring people and my hope is that Democrats don't take the bait, right? Don't start running away from this idea of socialism. We know that's not what it is. It is America taking care of the folks who need us most. One of the president's many tweets yesterdayris, said that. He hopes Democrats do do the green new deal. Yeah, listen. I watched Elizabeth Warren's announcement yesterday, and I said, this is exactly what ica is pining for, a Harvard professor in the white house. That's what they are looking for. I mean, that was a ridiculous announcement yesterday, and I will say as a Republican, please do all that stuff. Nominate Elizabeth Warren and let's get to it. Don't you think that would resonate with a lot of Americans? No. When people explain it, George -- see, you know, the president brings things through the sound bites. What was the elizabe Warren message there? Nobody's talking about how much it's going to cost to D do medicare for all. When the voters start to hear about what the price tags ar for there, that's why Amy klobuchar in a state like Minnesota doesn't talk about this stuff and gets re-elected because she can get independents and Republicans to vote for her, and if Democrats can't do that, Donald Trump is going to be in the white house for four more years. I thought senator Warren was a very, very clear voice on economic inequality which is a real experience for people. I spent 22 mths moving around the state of Florida and just this week had a report that said 44% of the people in our state cannot make ends meet at the end of the month. They're working harder than ever, and still can't pull down a wage where they can take care of themselves and their families. Those are real issues and the president wants to make this culture war and name-calling and socialism, but this race has to be about economics. It has to be about the future of our environment, which is a real issue and one of the issues which showed up in Florida in a very red, conservative area. They were concerned about climate change, global warming, sea level rise, blue-green algae. Those issues are real. If we followed the president down this rabbit hole of trying to respond to that name calling, we will be off target. The American people want to he us talk about these issues of what we're going to do to help make their lives better. Simply put in a democratic nominee that can do that, can become president of the united States. One of the things the Democrats saw running on a lot of those themes in the midterm elections is they won the house by the largest margin ever. Well, but the majority of those who run those house seats, George, were moderate Democrats. A lot with military backgrounds and so on. One of the things that the president is doing very effectively is pointing out the the deep divisions within the democratic party. You have this resurgent and ascendant left, and then you have moderates who are going to Mrs. Pelosi and the speakership and saying, we should broker a deal on the border and so on because if we don't, you're no longer going to be speaker and the house is going to revert back to Republican control. One thing the president did, and it was an unapologetic embrace of exceptionalism, which we haven't gotten, going to pattern his re-election in 2020 on Reagan's 1984 model which is a 21st century version of morning in America. He delivered a thriving economy and a stronger U.S. Military and U.S. International position. Of course, the risk -- That is what you saw in this speech. It was a speech of great clarity as well. Not just on immigration, but late-term abortion and on some other things. I think I listened to the wrong speech. Absolutely didn't hear that.I didn't hear that at all. There was a lot of rhetoric. He was talking to his base and trying to scare maybe more moderate members of the democratic party not to I think go where I think most Americans are going. Andrew said it. We had a federal shutdown where federal workers after one paycheck were in the food pantry line. That should encapsulate what most Americans are dealing with, and if you can pull medicare for most Republicans and most Americans support it shows where we're going as a country. Our current view and our current respect among capitalism isn't working. That doesn't mean we don't stay as a capitalist country. We just do it the right way, which means everybody pays their fair share. The top 1% pay 58% of the income tax. When is it fair share? The top 1% pay 58% of New Jersey is not fair share. What is it? 70%? I don't know if standing up for the 1% here is winning. I think the energy among the Democrats is undoubtedly on the far left of the party. Absolutely. That's why you have seen these leading presidential candidates like kamala Harris, Gillibrand and Warren come out in favor of positions that Democrats are rallying around, but it will be problematic in a general election. But to Monica's point, a lot of the successful Democrats were those who ran a little more down the middle. Right. Alexandria ocasio-cortez was not -- she represented one aspect of that winning coalition, but not the majority of that, and what trump is trying to do is define her as the voice of the democratic party. She was the diversity, and that one election to the united States congress and to legislative seats and governorships around the country and otherwise. If we think for a moment that people are satisfied economically where they are in this country, we have got another thing coming. People are terrified of going bankrupt over illness, health care. They're terrified that they are working more hours, multiple jobs and are not making ends meet. Which is what makes medicare for all a great rallying cry for Democrats right now, but you get into the specifics, are you going to be able to defend that in a general election? But also -- Say you're going to abolish private health insurance in this country, which is what a number of the democratic candidates are come out -- it's out there now. There are a lot of prescripts as to how we get there. You hear folks saying giving 3 million people access to health care. You're talking about generalities of the president's speech and we have kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand saying they want to help. People don't want to give their health insurance back to the government and when you come to the next levf medicare for all, that's where the democr will be in trouble. What they want is to know if they get sick, they won't be in the board house. Many people aren't. And if you know about medicare, most people who are on it, love it. If you ask people whether they would like medicare, they would say yes, please. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out "World news tonight" and I'll see you tomorrow on

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.