Which will be more important in 2020 election: personality or policy? 'The View' discusses

The co-hosts examine Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke's treatment of employees.

March 11, 2019, 3:27 PM

"The View" co-hosts are wondering if presidential candidates' policy or personality will hold more weight for voters in the 2020 election.

Monday morning on "The View," Joy Behar, Abby Huntsman, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin focused on presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar and prospective contender Beto O'Rourke when considering the influence of one's character over political approach.

During the South by Southwest Conference held in Austin over the weekend, both Klobuchar and O'Rourke's treatment of employees were addressed.

Klobuchar –- who's a senior Minnesota senator -- began her interview at SXSW by addressing "the comb" story run by The New York Times, which reported that she ate her salad with a comb after an employee forgot to give her a fork, then ordered him to clean it after she finished her meal.

She attributed her actions as a "mom thing," saying, "I didn't have a fork. I used a comb to eat a salad very briefly on a plane in a MacGyver move."

While Huntsman claimed Klobuchar did that to make the employee feel bad for not providing her with the proper utensil, Navarro claimed O'Rourke was "snapping at his staff" in the documentary "Running With Beto," which follows his 2018 Senate campaign and screened at SXSW.

PHOTO: Joy Behar, Abby Huntaman, Ana Navarro, and Sunny Hostin discuss presidential candidates' policy versus personality on "The View" Monday, Mar. 11, 2019.
Joy Behar, Abby Huntaman, Ana Navarro, and Sunny Hostin discuss presidential candidates' policy versus personality on "The View" Monday, Mar. 11, 2019.
Nicolette Cain/ABC

"He doesn't get the same kind of pushback ... that [Klobuchar]'s getting," Navarro said. "I think Beto O'Rourke gets away with a lot."

"You think a woman or Kamala Harris could get away with roaming the country for three months thinking about the meaning of life and whether they're going to run or not?" she added

"Personality matters, but part of personality is temperament," Hostin said.

"The fact that [Klobuchar] sort of [has] been reportedly very rude to staff, condescending to staff ... I think it says something about character. I think it says something about character when Beto is yelling at people," she said.

"It says something about how you treat people," she added.

Behar looked back on Ronald Reagan's journey from Democrat to Republican in 1962. "He turned the whole country red ... I hated his policies, but he was so amiable and lovely that people just fell in love with the guy."

If Donald Trump was taken out of the equation, Huntsman believes "the core of this country in its heart ... is good."

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