{"id":2902,"date":"2019-03-17T12:50:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/press.nbcnews.com\/?p=2902"},"modified":"2019-03-17T12:50:49","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T16:50:49","slug":"mtp-beto-orourke-as-a-white-man-ive-clearly-had-advantages-over-the-course-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nbcuniversalnewsgroup.com\/nbcnews\/2019\/03\/17\/mtp-beto-orourke-as-a-white-man-ive-clearly-had-advantages-over-the-course-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"MTP – BETO O\u2019ROURKE: \u2018AS A WHITE MAN … I’VE CLEARLY HAD ADVANTAGES OVER THE COURSE OF MY LIFE\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PLUS: O\u2019Rourke on\nRunning for President: \u201cI Get the Chance to be Part of Something that the\nCountry Badly Needs\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALSO: Sen. Amy\nKlobuchar: \u201cI Wasn’t Born to Run. But I am Running\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Pat\nToomey on Voting Against Trump National Emergency: \u201cIt Was About the Separation\nof Powers\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARCH 17, 2019\n\u2013 Former Congressman Beto\nO\u2019Rourke (D-Texas)<\/strong> acknowledged on Meet the Press<\/em> that he\u2019s been afforded\n\u201cprivileges\u201d in his life because of his race and gender: \u201cAs a white man who\nhas had privileges that others could not depend on or take for granted, I’ve\nclearly had advantages over the course of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with\nmoderator Chuck Todd on the trail in Waterloo, Iowa, O\u2019Rourke added: \u201cI think\nrecognizing that and understanding that others have not, doing everything I can\nto ensure that there is opportunity and the possibility for advancement and\nadvantage for everyone is a big part of this campaign and a big part of the\npeople who comprise this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just think\nthat this is the best field that we’ve ever seen in the nominating process. I\nthink the diversity of background, and experience, expertise that is going to\nbe brought to bear on these problems is exceptional,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said about the\n2020 Democratic field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cBut\nI’ll tell you I also happen to be the only candidate from the United\nStates\/Mexico border at a time that that dominates so much of our national conversation\nand legislative efforts and the things that the president talks about. There’s\none candidate who’s there who can talk about the profoundly positive impact\nthat immigrants have had on our safety and our security, as well as our success\nand our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd\nchallenged O\u2019Rourke on whether he\u2019d even be running for president had he not\nlost his Texas Senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and O\u2019Rourke\nreplied: \u201cI don’t know that I would be in Waterloo, and Keokuk, and all the\nother communities I’ve been in to run for president. I was running to serve my\nstate in the United States Senate and I’d made that commitment that I was going\nto serve everyone in the six years in that position of public trust. But I have\nan opportunity now to do something that I think the country badly needs. Or\nmaybe I should put it this way, I get the chance to be part of something that\nthe country badly needs, and that is coming together at this very divided\nmoment.\u201d Watch\nthe full interview.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen.\nAmy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)<\/strong> also sat down with Todd in Waterloo, Iowa and\nsaid \u201cI wasn’t born to run\u201d for the White House, alluding to Beto O\u2019Rourke\u2019s\ncomments to Vanity Fair<\/em>\nthat he was \u201cborn\u201d to run for president. \u201cOh, that’s the Beto line,\u201d she added,\n\u201cI have a lot of respect for Beto. And it’s great to have some Texas in this\nrace. But no, I wasn’t born to run for office, just because growing up in the\n’70s, in the middle of the country, I don’t think many people thought a girl\ncould be president. I wasn’t born to run. But I am running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked when she\nfirst thought she might run for President, Klobuchar said: \u201cIt was probably\nmore when I got to college. When I was growing up, in high school, that’s not\nwhat girls thought they were going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klobuchar told\nTodd she supports a push for humanitarian aid in Venezuela: \u201cThe answer here is\nto make sure that we are working with our allies, pushing for democracy and\nsome kind of a negotiated agreement.\u201d She also said she believes a military\nintervention \u201cshould always be on the table, but I don’t see that we use it\nnow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klobuchar also\ncommented on an emerging debate over reparations and said: \u201cI believe we have\nto invest in those communities that have been so hurt by racism. It doesn’t\nhave to be a direct pay for each person. But what we can do is, invest in those\ncommunities, acknowledge what\u2019s happened.\u201d Watch\nthe full interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen.\nPat Toomey (R-Pa.)<\/strong> joined the program for an exclusive interview and\naddressed his vote this week against President Donald Trump\u2019s national\nemergency declaration, saying that \u201cfor me, it was about the separation of\npowers.\u201d Toomey added: \u201cThis is one area where we should simply reclaim the\nlegislative responsibility that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m not sure\nthat it is straight up an illegal act. I think it’s a strained argument, but\nthere is a plausible argument for the legality of what the president did.\nThere’s a plausible argument for the constitutionality. What we voted on on\nThursday was not a question of whether the president has broken the law. What\nwe voted on was whether we approve of what he did,\u201d Toomey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On whether\nsocial media companies should be regulated for their content, Toomey notes:\n\u201cIt’s a big, really important discussion, Chuck. I’m not sure where we come\ndown on this because, as you know, in many cases, these companies are really\naggregators and, you know, they don’t have their own news departments, per se,\nin some cases. They don’t have their own editorial boards. And so they’re\naggregating messages and they’re providing a platform. And this, this is a new,\nvery, very important challenge for us. I don’t think there’s an obvious or easy\nanswer.\u201d Watch\nthe full interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PBS\u2019 Yamiche Alcindor<\/strong>, The\nWashington Post\u2019s Arthur\nBrooks<\/strong>, NBC News\u2019 Jos\u00e9\nD\u00edaz-Balart<\/strong> and USA TODAY\u2019s Susan Page<\/strong> joined the broadcast\u2019s\nroundtable<\/a> for insight and analysis on the week in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read\nthe full transcript<\/a> of Meet\nthe Press<\/em> this morning, and follow the show on\nTwitter<\/a> and on\nFacebook<\/a> for the latest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLEASE\nCREDIT: NBC NEWS\u2019 MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n