Sen. Amy Klobuchar was pitching her crossover appeal and election victories in conservative districts at a CNN town hall in April, expecting it to be an applause line.
"When I started running for office, the other senator was Republican, the governor was Republican and three of our four constitutional officers were Republican," Klobuchar said. And then I started running, and every single time I've run, I've won every single congressional district in my state, including [former Rep.] Michele Bachmann's."
But her message fell flat with the audience.
"That's when you guys are supposed to cheer," she said, prodding the crowd into applauding.
The hashtag #PleaseClap started trending on Twitter shortly after and she drew comparisons to Jeb Bush, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who did the same thing.
However, she did earn some applause throughout the town hall, including with an anecdote about Trump attacking her after launching her campaign in a blizzard.
"When he made fun of me for doing that, I said, 'Hey, Donald Trump. The science is on my side, and I'd like to see how your hair would fare in a blizzard, Mr. Umbrella Man,'" she said.
Amy Klobuchar has her "please clap" moment pic.twitter.com/b3SrveBeaf
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) April 22, 2019