PLUS: O’Rourke on Running for President: “I Get the Chance to be Part of Something that the Country Badly Needs”

ALSO: Sen. Amy Klobuchar: “I Wasn’t Born to Run. But I am Running”

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Pat Toomey on Voting Against Trump National Emergency: “It Was About the Separation of Powers”

MARCH 17, 2019 – Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) acknowledged on Meet the Press that he’s been afforded “privileges” in his life because of his race and gender: “As a white man who has had privileges that others could not depend on or take for granted, I’ve clearly had advantages over the course of my life.”

Speaking with moderator Chuck Todd on the trail in Waterloo, Iowa, O’Rourke added: “I think recognizing that and understanding that others have not, doing everything I can to ensure that there is opportunity and the possibility for advancement and advantage for everyone is a big part of this campaign and a big part of the people who comprise this campaign.”

“I just think that this is the best field that we’ve ever seen in the nominating process. I think the diversity of background, and experience, expertise that is going to be brought to bear on these problems is exceptional,” O’Rourke said about the 2020 Democratic field.

He added: “But I’ll tell you I also happen to be the only candidate from the United States/Mexico border at a time that that dominates so much of our national conversation and legislative efforts and the things that the president talks about. There’s one candidate who’s there who can talk about the profoundly positive impact that immigrants have had on our safety and our security, as well as our success and our strength.”

Todd challenged O’Rourke on whether he’d even be running for president had he not lost his Texas Senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and O’Rourke replied: “I don’t know that I would be in Waterloo, and Keokuk, and all the other communities I’ve been in to run for president. I was running to serve my state in the United States Senate and I’d made that commitment that I was going to serve everyone in the six years in that position of public trust. But I have an opportunity now to do something that I think the country badly needs. Or maybe I should put it this way, I get the chance to be part of something that the country badly needs, and that is coming together at this very divided moment.” Watch the full interview.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also sat down with Todd in Waterloo, Iowa and said “I wasn’t born to run” for the White House, alluding to Beto O’Rourke’s comments to Vanity Fair that he was “born” to run for president. “Oh, that’s the Beto line,” she added, “I have a lot of respect for Beto. And it’s great to have some Texas in this race. 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.”

Asked when she first thought she might run for President, Klobuchar said: “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.”

Klobuchar told Todd she supports a push for humanitarian aid in Venezuela: “The answer here is to make sure that we are working with our allies, pushing for democracy and some kind of a negotiated agreement.” She also said she believes a military intervention “should always be on the table, but I don’t see that we use it now.”

Klobuchar also commented on an emerging debate over reparations and said: “I believe we have to invest in those communities that have been so hurt by racism. It doesn’t have to be a direct pay for each person. But what we can do is, invest in those communities, acknowledge what’s happened.” Watch the full interview.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) joined the program for an exclusive interview and addressed his vote this week against President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, saying that “for me, it was about the separation of powers.” Toomey added: “This is one area where we should simply reclaim the legislative responsibility that we have.”

“I’m not sure that it is straight up an illegal act. I think it’s a strained argument, but there is a plausible argument for the legality of what the president did. There’s a plausible argument for the constitutionality. What we voted on on Thursday was not a question of whether the president has broken the law. What we voted on was whether we approve of what he did,” Toomey said.

On whether social media companies should be regulated for their content, Toomey notes: “It’s a big, really important discussion, Chuck. I’m not sure where we come down on this because, as you know, in many cases, these companies are really aggregators and, you know, they don’t have their own news departments, per se, in some cases. They don’t have their own editorial boards. And so they’re aggregating messages and they’re providing a platform. And this, this is a new, very, very important challenge for us. I don’t think there’s an obvious or easy answer.” Watch the full interview.

PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor, The Washington Post’s Arthur Brooks, NBC News’ José Díaz-Balart and USA TODAY’s Susan Page joined the broadcast’s roundtable for insight and analysis on the week in politics.

Read the full transcript of Meet the Press this morning, and follow the show on Twitter and on Facebook for the latest.

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MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on Americans across the country. It is the #1 most-watched Sunday public affairs show for the 2017-2018 season, reaching more than three million viewers every Sunday and millions more through social, digital and on-demand platforms. Meet the Press brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with MTP Daily weekdays at 5 p.m. ET and to the 1947: The Meet the Press Podcast. It’s the longest-running show in television history, recently expanding its brand to include a political short-documentary film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of Meet the Press; John Reiss is the executive producer.