NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

Joining me now, from the other side of the aisle, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Thanks, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Nice to see you. What did you take away from yesterday? And did you see it as a rebuke of President Trump?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

I saw it as the story of John McCain, his grieving family, a grieving nation. People who he had run against, people who had defeated him, he invited them in. And I think it is no surprise that the subject of the administration came up obliquely from time to time. But I think that George Bush actually said it best to explain it. He said that John McCain's life was defined, in part, by the fact that he detested the abuse of power, whether that was people who poisoned political opponents or put reporters in jail, or, yes, people who would take on immigrants in a way that he thought was inappropriate, like the president has done, or people who would go after F.B.I. agents or P.O.Ws, like himself. So yes, that was part of John McCain's strength in character, that he was willing to stand up and take on bullies. And so I think that is how you saw it come up. But it was really a part of the arc of his life in fighting for those that needed someone to fight for them.

CHUCK TODD:

Some of us viewed this week as almost a memorial service for another era of politics. I talked to other senators, Jeff Flake, in particular, said, "No, no, no. It should be a call to arms to sort of bring the center of American politics back or bring the idea of compromise back." Let's be realistic. Both parties, right now, punish, punish you if either side works too closely with the other. How do you get that back?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

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I think you get it back by listening to John McCain's words, that you have to be fighting for a cause greater than yourselves. And you see that, from time to time, in the Senate, especially when big things happen. And we have to do it again.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you really see it, though?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

I do. I mean, I worked with Senator McCain on bringing down the cost of pharma prices by bringing in drugs from other countries. There are other Republicans on that bill. And I hope that someone else will come and take the lead. We did the Honest Ads Act. And he was the only, sadly, the only Republican on that bill to take on the social media companies to make them put their ads out there. And so I'm, right now, asking another Republican to get on that bill. So you have a number of cases, and Senator Sullivan went through some of them, where we work across the aisle all the time. But we have to see more of it. And when people are afraid of pissing off President Trump, and so they won't come over and work with us, that's a problem. So people are going to have to rise to the occasion.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me move to the Kavanaugh hearing. You are on Judiciary, I believe.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Yes, I am.

CHUCK TODD:

I conflated both of your committees. My apologies this Sunday morning. As you know, the Democratic base is pretty upset, pretty upset at Democratic leadership. They feel as if there was -- he didn't like the deal -- they didn't like the deal that Chuck Schumer cut with Mitch McConnell that sort of, in their minds, fast tracked some of these judicial nominees. Why shouldn't the base be upset with that?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

What matters is what happens in the next week at this hearing. And I think you're going to see some really strong sets of questions from a number of us that are on the Judiciary Committee. The point I'm going to make is that this is not normal. You have a nominee with excellent credentials, with his family behind him. You have the cameras there. You have the senators questioning. But this isn't normal. It's not normal, because we are not able to see 100,000 documents, that the archivist has just -- because the administration has said we can't see them. They've exerted their executive power. 148,000 documents that I've seen that you cannot see, because they won't allow us to make them public. So I can't even tell you about them right now on this show.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you think any of these documents could make him unqualified for the job?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

I think that you could ask some very interesting questions about these documents that I'm unable to even say, because I'm not able to make them public. And I don't know what the result would be of a hearing. We have had nominees like Bork that went down.

CHUCK TODD:

So it raises questions to you about his qualifications? What you have seen in these papers that we have not seen, it actually raises doubts, in your mind, about Kavanaugh's ability to be a fair justice?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

It would certainly bolster, strongly bolster the arguments that I could make. And then you have the president's campaign chair having been just convicted. You've got his lawyer pleading guilty. And you have a nominee who had one of the most expansive views of presidential power that we've seen in history. This is a guy that says, one, "A president should be able to declare a statute constitutional all by himself." That he, in writing, has said, "You should throw out the Special Counsel statute." This is all very relevant. And no, it's not normal.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, let's look at the reality, though. The Democrats do not have control of the U.S. Senate. There is no filibuster. And we know why we don't have a filibuster. This has been a game of chicken that both parties have played. There's nothing you can do, unless you do something out of the ordinary. Kevin de León, who is running against Dianne Feinstein for the U.S. Senate seat in California, he is arguing this. He's the nominee in the second slot there. "Stop playing polite, country-club politics with a Supreme Court nominee who represents one of the greatest threats to a woman's right to choose in our lifetime." I guess the basic question is, if in a similar situation, what would Mitch McConnell do?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Well, we know what Mitch McConnell did. But that was because he had the power. So to me, the first answer is that we need a check and balance on this White House. And we need to win elections.

CHUCK TODD:

Some folks are suggesting that you guys should just walk out of the hearing. You've heard that.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Okay, that's interesting. I think you have incredible senators on there, like Cory Booker and Kamala Harris and Dick Durbin, Mazie Hirono, Dick Blumenthal and Dianne, you name it, Chris Coons. I think it's much more powerful, if we go in there, and we ask the questions, Patrick Leahy. We need that opportunity to ask the questions. And if we just walked out, it would simply be one side asking the questions. So I don't think that's the way you examine a nominee and get the facts out.

CHUCK TODD:

You would probably have the ability to get all of these papers public, if there was a threat that they needed 60 votes, right? Let me ask you this. If Democrats get control of the Senate back, should the principle be that the filibuster should come back for Supreme Court nominees?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Well, first of all, we would've not supported changing that.

CHUCK TODD:

I understand that. But if you get the power, would you support bring the--

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

When the Democrats were in power, we said--

CHUCK TODD:

Would you support bringing the filibuster back, if you get power in November?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

I think that we should've had the filibuster in place. And by the way, that sounds like a really scary word to normal people out there.

CHUCK TODD:

I understand that.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

But it's the idea that you have to have a consensus. So I would've liked to see 60 votes, no matter what the judge is. I don't think we should've made that change, when we look back at it. But it happened. Because we were so frustrated. Because President Obama wasn't able to get his nominees. But I think we would've been in a better place now. The point is we still left the 60 votes in place for the Supreme Court --

CHUCK TODD:

Would you bring it back?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

-- and Mitch McConnell changed that. I would prefer to bring it back. We are where we are. And now, I don't think anyone's going to want to hamstring themselves.

CHUCK TODD:

You're on the ballot in Minnesota in November. Has Keith Ellison, who's the nominee for attorney general, there's some allegations against him having to do with potential spousal abuse. Has he explained himself to you enough, as a voter, to feel comfortable voting for him?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

He has. I think there's a very good article in the New York Times that went through all of this recently. He is still addressing this to the people of Minnesota. And I think it's being reviewed. And I know that he is moving forward --

CHUCK TODD:

Are you comfortable campaigning with him?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

-- and he got the votes in the primary.

CHUCK TODD:

Would you campaign for him?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Right now, I'm focused on Judge Kavanaugh. He hasn't asked me to campaign with him. That is where we are right now. And we have an incredibly strong ticket in Minnesota. We have two Senate races up, a governor's race. Focused on that.

CHUCK TODD:

So if he asked, would you campaign for him?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

I will campaign with our ticket when the time comes.

CHUCK TODD:

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota. Thanks very much.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:

Thank you.

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