Democratic presidential contender Amy Klobuchar admitted Saturday she did eat a salad with a comb but brushed it off as a 'mom thing' she did because she didn't have a fork.

Klobuchar downplayed a New York Times story during her talk at SXSW that she berated an aide for forgetting to get her a fork when buying her a salad she she then proceeded to eat it with a fork.

'No one feels good when they read a story like that,' Klobuchar said.

'It was me sort of doing a mom thing, I didn't have a fork so I used a comb to eat salad on a plane,' she added.

Democratic presidential contender Amy Klobuchar admitted she did eat a salad with a comb, confirming a New York Times report

She explained it as 'doing a mom thing' because she didn't have a fork to eat her salad

She reiterated an old explanation to the stories of her being a bullying boss by explaining she has high expectations.

'Like I have said I have high expectations for myself. I have expectations for the people that work for me,' she said.

'I know I can be tough on people – sometimes too tough,' she conceded and added: 'But I also know I have incredible people that work for me.'

Klobuchar answered the question on the comb story quickly, talking rapidly in her explanation for what happened.

On February 22, The New York Times reported that Klobuchar once ate a salad with her comb and then asked a staff member whom she berated for not getting her a fork to clean it afterwards.

The incident took place at an airport in 2008 while Klobuchar was headed to South Carolina.

The aide was carrying the salad for his boss while also hauling their bags through an airport terminal when he accidentally dropped the plastic eating utensils.

After they reached the gate, Klobuchar reprimanded the staff member for not having a plastic fork ready for her to use.

Klobuchar argued qualifications matter more when it comes to the White House - an argument Hillary Clinton made against Donald Trump, which failed to propel her to the Oval Office.

'Running for president should be a likability contest,' Klobuchar said Saturday.

And she didn't dwell on the comb story.

'You move on and you make sure you have the right staff around you at all the time to get the job done,' she said, adding that the 2020 race is a 'fishbowl.'

She shrugged off a question as to whether she was being held to a different standard as a female candidate.

'I can't waste my time analyzing it because the stakes are too high and I care too much,' she said.

Klobuchar spoke to a three-quarters full auditorium at the annual festival in Austin.

The crowd was a mix of older and younger people - predominately women.

She said if she becomes the 2020 Democratic nominee she would use humor against President Trump.

She also dubbed Trump: 'Mr. Umbrella man' after he mocked her for standing out in the snow during her presidential announcement.

'You know what I’d like to see how your hair will work in a blizzard, Mr. Umbrella Man,' she said.

'He wants to get on every news cycle,' she said of the president, pointing to how Trump tweeted that she was a 'snow woman' after her presidential announcement was made in a snow storm.

She answered a lightening-round series of questions on the news of the day: saying she did not agree with Rep. Ilhan Omar's comments, that the special counsel's report on the Russia investigation should be made public and refused to comment on whether President Trump should be impeached.

Klobuchar noted she did not agree with her fellow Minnesota lawmaker's remarks on allegiance to other nations.

'I did not agree with what the representative said there because I believe you can be true to your country and advocate for another country whether it's Israel or Canada,' she said of Omar.

The freshman Democratic representative from Minnesota caused an outrage when she said she didn't think it was 'okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.'

Klobuchar admitted: 'I didn't like what she said there.' The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a resolution condemning hate speech after Democrats battled each other on how to respond to Omar's remarks.

Klobuchar said she did not like the comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar

And Klobuchar refused to comment on whether or not President Trump should be impeached

She also said the less than four years sentence given to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was 'appalling to me' and argued Robert Mueller's report on his Russia investigation should be made public.

She refused to answer whether President Trump should be impeached.

'We are in different position in the Senate. We are the jury. I never comment on evidence. I didn't as a prosecutor,' she said. 'I never weigh in on what is impeachable.'

She also slammed the president for slamming the media.

'We have a president in the White House that tweets whatever he wants in the morning but doesn't respect the amendment that allows him to do it,' she said.

Klobuchar used her trade-mark humor during her hour-long talk and argued her electability was her greatest asset in the crowded Democratic primary.

With 14 candidates in the field - so far - in the battle for the Democratic nomination, Klobuchar pointed out she has won all three of her Senate elections in her home state of Minnesota, including 'every single congressional district every single time including Michelle Bachmann's.'

Bachmann was an ultra conservative member of Congress.

Klobuchar also pointed out Minnesota is a purple state that President Donald Trump nearly won in 2016. He lost it by one point.

The senator has long used her Midwest stick and 'Minnesota nice' image to raise her national profile, which is what made the stories about her management skills with staff particularly devastating to her.

Klobuchar has been overshadowed by bullying boss stories since she made her presidential announcement in early February

She used her trademark humor in her talk at SXSW

She is also known for her sense of humor and she threw out plenty of one-liners to the crowd, which laughed appreciatively at them.

'That's something you'll see me do, use humor,' she told the crowd.

'In Minnesota we can see Canada from our porch,' she joked when talking about prescription drugs coming in from Canada.