CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar"

Interview

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[16:15:38] TAPPER: Our 2020 lead now. President Trump making headlines on the world stage, continuing his attacks on the mayor of London and weighing in on candidates seeking to replace outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May during his visit to the U.K., a critical U.S. ally.

Joining me now to discuss this and much more is Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks, Jake. Great to be on.

TAPPER: So, what do you make of the president's trip so far?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think, as usual, he took what should be an opportunity to showcase our nation and started out with the usual, which is creating some chaos, which is, making negative news, which is going after the mayor of the biggest city in the country, London, and calling him a stone-cold loser. Or going after the princess, one of the princesses and calling her nasty.

These are things that he did. And you add that just to the general chaos he's creating at home with the 5 percent tariffs on Mexico with the promise of more to come after that goes into place, he says, very soon, in June. That's the kind of chaos he likes. And I just think that's not how you embark on international diplomacy with one of our best allies.

TAPPER: Now, the supporters of the president would point out that the mayor, Mayor Khan, attacked the president first. He wrote an op-ed in "The Guardian" in which he laid out a whole lot of criticisms of President Trump and President Trump's stone-cold loser tweet, I know that didn't exactly run off your tongue, which is probably a good thing.

KLOBUCHAR: That's a very good thing.

TAPPER: Yes.

KLOBUCHAR: Not a phrase I usually say.

TAPPER: Yes, but it was a response. That would be their response.

KLOBUCHAR: OK, all right, but the point is, he is the president of the United States. This is a mayor who has long been in a back and forth with. And he's the one that sent this tweet with those words.

So, I just think, when you look at it all together. This is very similar to what happens often when he doesn't like someone that criticizes him. When he just did because he doesn't like that CNN criticizes him on foreign soil, he goes after, on the same trip and says, oh, go boycott AT&T, an American company, because he doesn't like the fact that AT&T, that owns Time Warner, that owns CNN. So he decides to go after the company and tells people to boycott an American company. I think that's outrageous.

So it's just the same kind of thing you see over and over again. And it wears on people and it certainly wears on the world in terms of our global leadership.

TAPPER: Let's turn to the race to replace him. The latest CNN poll shows Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders topping the field. You're at 2 percent.

The poll also found that 44 percent of Democrats say they've made up their minds about which candidate they're going to support. That's up eight points since April. This is before any debates have taken place, as there's obviously going to be debates this month and CNN is going debates next month.

Explain to those voters out there, Democrats and independents who have already made up their mind, 44 percent, according to this poll, why you should be their candidate of choice and why they should not have made up their minds.

KLOBUCHAR: Sure. Well, first of all, I'll say, don't underestimate me. I have won every race. I have won in red counties that no one thinks are winnable that Donald Trump won in just the last election, every congressional district that he won. And also because I'm someone that has real solutions for real problems, I'm showing how I'm going to pay for things and I have a long track record of getting things done and bringing people together.

Even under Donald Trump, I passed dozens of bills where I was the lead Democrat. And I would also add, at this point, as people are pontificating about this, look back. No one thought a governor from Arkansas was going to be president at this point. No one thought a peanut farmer from Georgia was ever going to make it to the Oval Office. And no one thought a senator named Barack Obama was going to win.

These things are long in the making. People watch the debates. They're going to have many opportunities to see this and I'm also really happy with how we're doing in the early states. The last poll I saw, we were up to number six in this field. That means I'm ahead of, I don't know, what 18 people?

TAPPER: Yes.

KLOBUCHAR: And it's because we're getting out there and talking to people. And that's what I plan to do all over the country -- talk about mental health, addiction, infrastructure. These bread and butter issues that matter to people in their everyday lives.

TAPPER: I know you want to talk about gun violence --

[16:20:01]KLOBUCHAR: Yes.

TAPPER: -- given the violence attack that we saw in Virginia Beach over the weekend.

We just found out the Florida department of law enforcement has arrested former deputy chief, Scot Peterson, who has been criticized for cowardice for not doing anything --

KLOBUCHAR: I remember that.

TAPPER: -- at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Charges include child neglect and perjury.

I have never heard of anybody -- a police officer, a law enforcement officer being charged with neglect for failing to carry out his duty.

You were a prosecutor, have you heard anything about that?

KLOBUCHAR: There may well have been cases like this. I didn't have one quite like that when I was in office. But I will say when I heard those reports, I thought, this is unbelievable! He wasn't doing his job. He didn't go into the school.

I mean, that is what first responders, as hard as their jobs are, that's what they're supposed to do. Not run away or hide from a crisis, but go towards it. So I would imagine that the prosecutor in this case felt the evidence was there to bring the charges. But the bigger issue here is what else came out of Parkland.

TAPPER: Are you proposing anything that would have stopped what would in Virginia Beach or Parkland?

KLOBUCHAR: Of course. Well, each shooting is different, but you have to do a combination of things. The magazines which were involved with Virginia Beach -- I have long been a supporter of banning the sale of these magazines.

TAPPER: High-capacity --

KLOBUCHAR: High-capacity magazines. And I think helpful.

And as you know, the Virginia Republicans rejected -- the state of Virginia, they weren't able to pass a bill last time. And I understand the governor is now calling them back into session to deal with something on gun violence.

When you look at some of the other things we could be doing. Universal background checks could have presented some this, including a lot of every day shootings, which are domestic violence and suicides. You look at what we could do on bump stocks. There are so many things, extreme risk orders, that could be done.

And I sat across the president of the United States, because of the leadership I have shown when it comes to domestic violence shootings. And my boyfriend loophole, closing that loophole, going after stalkers so they can't kill women. That is in the domestic violence bill right now, Violence Against Women Act. Passed the House with 33 Republican votes, sitting on Mitch McConnell's doorstep.

So because of that, I sat across from the president and I watched and nine times, nine times, he said he wanted to pass universal background check. He would say, go include it in the bill. Get that done.

He would turn to Toomey, who was one of the authors of that bill, Republican -- put that in the bill. And then the next day he meets with the NRA and he just ducks down, ducks for cover, avoids the issue, never gets past. That is not leadership.

And to me, if you're going to put a dent in these mass shootings and also those everyday shootings in our neighborhoods, which are massacring people in a very different way, one by one by one, you have to go after closing these gun show loopholes. You have to go on universal background checks, which includes that. You have to do something about the boyfriend loophole, magazines, bump stocks.

There are so many different things that you could do that would not hurt my Uncle Dick in his deer stand. I come from a hunting state so I can speak with some credibility on this.

TAPPER: All right. Democratic senator and 2020 Democratic presidential aspirant, Amy Klobuchar, thank you so much for coming here.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.

TAPPER: I really appreciate it.

KLOBUCHAR: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks for coming here and talking policy.

KLOBUCHAR: Excellent, thanks.

TAPPER: A split within the GOP, Senator Lindsey Graham supporting a controversial idea from President Trump after opposing it not too long ago and he's far from alone. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:17] TAPPER: In our politics lead today, the White House is facing fierce rhetorical resistance right now from Republican senators over proposed tariffs against Mexico. Sources telling CNN in a lunch with Republican senators today, administration officials struggled to explain how they would implement these tariffs.

But the president does not seem concerned.

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