CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar
Interview
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MARGARET BRENNAN: You know we're coming up on a presidential election year when Saturday Night Live starts their show with a primary debate. Right now the real Senator Amy Klobuchar joins us from Council Bluffs, Iowa. Good morning to you, Senator.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-Minnesota/@amyklobuchar/2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate): Good morning, Margaret. I think Rachel Dratch does a pretty good job of playing me, I enjoy it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you came out swinging at this last debate. You got a lot of attention. Do you think this is a more aggressive but still moderate Amy Klobuchar?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: I have been the same since the very beginning when I announced my candidacy in the middle of that blizzard in the Mississippi River. I think it's really clear we need someone leading this ticket who's going to bring people with them instead of shutting them out. And the point I made in the debate is that I have been consistent in my views. I have passed over a hundred bills in the United States Senate during a really difficult time. And I have won in the reddest of red districts and won with suburban and rural voters and Republicans and independents and a fired up Democratic base. I think that's a good case--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: --to be made. And I think the other thing I did in this debate was just make the case of how I want to be the one debating Donald Trump. And I think it is more than just the nitty-gritty of policy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: It's also a value statement because so many people want a values check on this President. They want someone who gives them a decency check, a patriotism check.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well-- well, and-- and there is the very real check that you as a senator may have to deliver in this impending Senate trial to continue the impeachment process. But you've said your campaign's not going to get in the way of your job as a senator. You can't be in two places at once, though. And Iowa is really make it or break it. How is the impeachment trial going to impact your campaign?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, look at what I've just done. I finished that L.A. debate. We had a little after party, got up at 4:00 AM, did the shows, got to Iowa, went on a bus tour. And we've already done fifteen counties in a day and a half, ending last night at midnight and had record crowds at every little town that we went to. That's how I am going to do it. I don't need a lot of sleep. I work really hard. And I also have endorsements of more electeds and former electeds than anyone in this race, in this primary field. So we're going to have-- in the state of Iowa, so we are going to have so many people showing up to help me if I'm doing my constitutional duty, which comes first as a U.S. senator. And my husband was just in Nevada. My daughter, I've got the governor and lieutenant governor of Minnesota. Everyone's volunteered to help out because they get that we're going to need some help and I'll have to Skype in for town hall meetings. There is modern technology.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: I think we're going to find a way to do this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, skyping in for a campaign, that's-- that's an interesting choice because of what you're juggling here. But is-- is your campaign going to ask the DNC to reschedule the upcoming debate? It could fall right in the middle of that trial.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, my first belief is we have to have the debate. And if for some reason it doesn't work, sometimes there's breaks in the trial and even when you looked at past impeachment trials, there were breaks in the day so we could get there. If that day doesn't work, there's plenty of other days. We know we don't have Sundays when we are doing this and there's going to be other days after that. We may just have to have the debate closer to the Iowa caucuses. But we have to have an Iowa debate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that being discussed right now?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: I don't know I have made it very clear that there should be no excuses. I am ready to debate at midnight if that's what we have to do. We have to have a debate before the Iowa caucuses. That would be to my advantage if it was at midnight. I'd be happy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Senator Schumer has asked Leader McConnell to allow witnesses at this upcoming trial. And we know the decision on what the-- the outlines of this are going to look like are still an open question. How do Democrats force witnesses to be allowed, people like Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Pompeo?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: Well, some of this is going on right now where Speaker Pelosi is trying to get some sense from the majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, about what's happening, and I know Senator Schumer had a meeting with him. I'm not sure it went that well. But, in the end, Mitch McConnell is going to think about it over the holidays. Look at what we're dealing with. I couldn't believe the number of people that came up to me about this. First, they were focused, of course, on the investigation and the impeachment, but now they're saying, why wouldn't we have witnesses at a trial? You know they're thinking like law and order. The first half, there's an investigation and then you have a trial. And if the President is so innocent and claims he's innocent, why would he not allow, just like Richard Nixon did, the people that were closest to him to testify? And I think we have some--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is-- is that the--
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: --pretty shocking news, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that the Democratic strategy to take these two weeks of break, to put pressure on the Republican caucus to-- to back away and allow witnesses?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: I think it-- it's not a strategy it is a fact. It is a, you can't have a trial if you don't have the key witnesses. You can at least have a thorough trial. Look at what we just learned on Friday from a document request. And that's-- it's this guy named Michael Duffy, who worked for Mick Mulvaney over at OMB. He's the one that sent the e-mail to a bunch of people and said to withhold the aid to Ukraine. He sent this e-mail, I have it in my hand, ninety minutes after the President of the United States talked to president of Ukraine.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: And this is what he says: he says, "Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping the information closely held to those who need to know. What does that mean? What a great question. That's a question I want to have answered.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the way aid was on hold--
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: So if you don't allow--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --before that date, though. What do you think that shows you?
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR: But the point is why did he send this e-mail just ninety minutes after the President made this call? Why would this e-mail go? If the President is so innocent and shouldn't be impeached, why is he afraid to have these people come forward? That's what people are asking me when I am at these town hall meetings.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Senator Klobuchar, thank you.
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