CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript Interview with Amy Klobuchar

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Let's bring in Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: So, your home state, Minnesota, requires voters to request mail-in ballots. It's not universal vote by mail. People have to request, but they can vote by mail.

[16:35:07]

Do you worry at all that the president's constant attacks on voting by mail are going to discourage your voters from voting that way?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, of course I do. That's what he is trying to do.

But something has happened, or, as we say, something is happening here, which the voters have figured it out. By the way, in the Republican primary in Maryland, over 95 percent of their voters voted by mail.

That just happened, Jake. And so people, Republicans, independents, Democrats, are discarding what he's saying. They're continuing to look at protecting their health. They would rather put ballots in the mailbox than their families in the hospitals. That's what's happening today. And that's why we are trying so hard to, one, save the post office, fund the post office.

That's why Speaker Pelosi is calling back the House. Mitch McConnell should do the same for the Senate. And why we want to pass my bill to put standards in place nationally and get the funding we need to help the states, as we have this major conversion of voting.

No matter what the president tweets to try to mess with people, people are still voting to keep themselves safe.

TAPPER: So, nine states do universal vote by mail, which is that the counties and the state send out ballots. They don't have to be requested. They just go out to every registered voter.

Most states do not have that. Most states are like Minnesota, Florida, where President Trump is voting, et cetera, which is you have to request a ballot and then you can vote by mail.

KLOBUCHAR: Exactly.

TAPPER: Would you concede that the extra step that Minnesota has with mail-in voting, requiring voters to request the ballot, that that does provide a layer of election security that doesn't exist in places like New Jersey?

KLOBUCHAR: I wouldn't concede that, because that just happens to be how we did it.

We also used to have all kinds of things like witnesses to get a ballot that we changed. We just changed to have the ballots be postmarked until the day of the election. So all states, including states with Republican secretary of states and governors, are looking at their rules and trying to make it easier.

And our job is to have that continue. And I don't have a problem with these states that are sending ballots out. You have had, by the way, states like Utah that have nearly 100 percent vote by mail. That's a Republican state. That's why Mitt Romney is such a strong supporter of it.

You have states like Colorado that have nearly 100 percent. And if you want to talk fraud, Oregon did a study for the last years and found that point 0.000,0001 percent fraud. And you don't have the hacking that we were concerned about in the last election and this one from foreign countries when you have an actual paper ballot to prove your stuff and who you voted for.

TAPPER: The Trump campaign is filing lawsuits to argue that this mail-in voting is not safe, President Trump using his platform to do the same.

A new CNN poll shows at 42 percent of the American people are not confident that votes will be counted and cast accurately. How do Democrats combat that with your message of, voting is safe?

KLOBUCHAR: You do it, first of all, like Michelle Obama did it, sitting in her living room, telling people straight out, one, you got to vote like your life depends on it, because it does, and, two, do everything you can to learn the rules.

Americans are going to have to get more educated themselves than they have ever had before in each state. Get your ballot in early. Make sure it was received. And then, if there's a problem or you choose not to vote that way, try to vote early, instead of on Election Day.

And if you choose to vote on Election Day, which we must make safe, then get there, as she said, pack your breakfast, and have your bag lunch, because what we don't want to have is what happened in Wisconsin, when the Republicans messed with it. And we saw African- American voters in line in garbage bags and homemade masks in the rain.

And then look at the other side of the split-screen, which you just pointed out, the president of the United States voting in the luxury of Pennsylvania Avenue in his slippers -- I don't know if he had slippers -- but sitting in there, being able to vote with this mail-in ballot from Palm Beach, Florida.

It's an outrage, and Americans get it.

TAPPER: So, Senator Kamala Harris will speak at the DNC tonight, the convention tonight, as the party's vice presidential nominee.

A campaign aide says that Harris wants people to see themselves in her speech. I don't know if you have spoken to her. I know that you guys are colleagues and friends from the Senate, as well as from the campaign trail.

What are you expecting her to say tonight?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I expect her to speak from the heart. She -- I have talked to her since she was announced. And I am just so excited for her.

I think one thing I want America to see is not only this incredibly competent woman who ran the second biggest Justice Department in the country to the Justice Department, but I also want them to see the joy of Kamala Harris, her smile, how much she has a zest for life.

[16:40:05]

And that's something that gets buried sometimes in primaries, and I just think she adds a lot of excitement. And the one thing I'm looking forward to, like how I felt when Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in Minnesota. I remember what she was wearing. I remember what she said.

And I think every little girl and boy in America, especially African- Americans, Indian Americans, they're going to look at that screen tonight, and they're going to think, anything and everything is possible. So it is an incredible night for America. So, tune in.

TAPPER: When Joe Biden was picking his vice president, some of the people advocating for you to be the nominee, the vice presidential nominee, said that you would help him with the Midwest, those Midwestern states that Hillary Clinton struggled with, Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Do you think that Kamala Harris will be able to provide that to the ticket in a way that, say, you would have been able to?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, of course she will.

And could I also add that Joe Biden has incredible support in the Midwest? And I'm still helping him, Jake. I spoke the first night of the convention. I talked about being from a part of the country where we believe in solving problems and crossing the river of our divides, and getting things done.

And that's exactly what Joe Biden has been talking about from the beginning, as opposed to the divider in chief that we have in the White House today.

TAPPER: I saw. I watched the speech. You talked about the Minnesota bridge collapse and everybody coming together to fix the problem.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, good job the other night. Thanks so much for joining us today. KLOBUCHAR: Thank you. It was great to be on, Jake.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source