MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

MSNBC "Rachel Maddow Show" Interview With Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Subject: Republican Criticism of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor

Interviewer: Rachel Maddow

Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

MS. MADDOW: Joining us now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. In addition to being a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she is also both the junior and the senior senator from the great State of Minnesota.

Senator Klobuchar, thanks for coming back on the show.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you, Rachel. That was quite a collection of comments you gathered there.

MS. MADDOW: (Laughs.)

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: And the problem is that people are listening to it, so I'm glad that you are giving me an opportunity to set the record straight.

This is a woman who came from nothing; in her own words, a modest and challenging background. Went to be the valedictorian of her high school class, went on to be tops in her class at Princeton, went on to get on the Yale Law Review and be one of the editors there.

You don't get there unless you're smart. Her own boss, as a prosecutor, as a former prosecutor -- I admire this -- called her fearless.

She went on to have a good career in the private sector and then has been on the bench more than anyone that has sat on the Supreme Court for something like 70 years.

So this is a woman with experience, someone who doesn't just know the law and the Constitution; she also knows America. And she is someone of great dignity, and I will hope that the hearing that we have in the Senate Judiciary Committee and that my colleagues will treat her with great dignity.

MS. MADDOW: Do you expect that it's going to be a more dignified proceeding in the Judiciary Committee, that the criticism will be -- happen at a different level than what we're experiencing thus far?

I've -- as you can tell, you can tell how I feel about the level of discourse so far.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I would hope so. I think you see some of this dialing back.

Senator Sessions is talking about how he didn't think there'll be a filibuster. They're talking about a thorough but careful hearing. You hear those kinds of words, and I think that that is very promising.

They know the facts. Of the 400 opinions she wrote, something like five of them have been reversed. Of the time that she's been on a panel with a Republican-appointed judge, 95 percent of the time they've agreed.

So all of this criticism that's been lobbed at her and all of these name-calling and shame-calling that's been going on, it's just not merited by the facts. And I believe they know that.

MS. MADDOW: When you call it name-calling -- and I do think that it's been ad hominem. I think it's been inappropriate, as you could tell from the way I introduced this.

Do you also think that there's a sense in which this is -- it's more than just unfortunate, that it is dangerous on some level, bad for the country?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: When people listen -- and you know there are a lot of people listening to those shows and they don't have the right facts, of course it's never a good thing.

But that's why we have other shows that get the facts out, and you hope people listen and you hope they watch the hearings and tune in and see -- themselves.

And so far, you really haven't seen the majority of the American public swayed by this kind of rhetoric and mudslinging. It just hasn't happened. So I think that's a very good sign.

I think the president's introduction, her own words, were very helpful. People watched that. And then you just have the facts.

I love this. The latest is they're calling her abrasive. And I was sort of thinking of all the male judges that I've met in my life. And maybe we have reached a point in this country where we can have nominated a woman judge that may be a little gruff and to the point, because we certainly have enough men judges that are like that.

MS. MADDOW: (Laughs.) Do you think, though, because the rhetoric is so over the top -- and it is in the media; it's on the TV shows and it's on the radio shows and it's sometimes in columns and things, is where we've heard this most over-the-top stuff.

Do you think that Republicans who are elected officials should be going further to essentially tell those people to cut it out, to say it's bad for the country, stop doing this?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well --

MS. MADDOW: We've heard that a little bit, but not very much.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You have. Senator Cornyn just did it. I think you're starting to hear some of it. It's certainly bad for their party. And I think people have an obligation to call --

Because I just had a guy come up to me at the airport the other day. I was coming back from northern Minnesota and I had a guy come in and just say to me, you know, this is going to be problem because she's putting her feelings in front of the law.

And so I went back at him and told him all these statistics and what the truth was, and that just wasn't the facts. But people are listening to this.

So I think it's very important that the American public tune in to these hearings, that they look at all of the opinions. She's written so many of them, and she basically is someone who just takes the law -- whether you agree with her or not -- takes the facts and applies the law to those facts.

And that's what you're supposed to do when you're a judge. And I always added, as I told this guy, hey, she brought back baseball to America. That's not too bad.

MS. MADDOW: Well, if we can learn half as much about Judge Sotomayor through this process as we have learned about the right wing through this process thus far -- (laughs) -- it'll be very informative indeed.

Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota, thank you so much for your time tonight. It's really great to have you back on the show.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you very much, Rachel. It was great to be on.

MS. MADDOW: Thanks.

END.

Source