MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Supreme Court

Interview

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HAYES: I`m joined now by a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee set to hold hearings on the President`s new Supreme Court nominee if they have hearings any more. I don`t know, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator, you do understand right of course, I understand this argument and obviously if there`s a rank hypocrisy but Mitch McConnell and all those folks don`t care at all about that.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: First of all this is a historic moment like we`ve ever seen, Chris, and I know you understand that so instead of just thinking about what they care about, I want to think about the American people. First of all, you look at the decisions, 5-4, 5-4, 5-4, decisions about refugees, decisions about who can marry, decisions about safety at work. These cases affect real people in their lives and that`s a case we`re going to have to make. Because you`ve seen people organized like ever before, they`re going to have to understand the implications of this appointment and how much it means and that`s where we are right now on this. We`ve got to make the case to some of our Republican colleagues if in fact, the President put someone fourth who is an ideologue instead of someone who`s an independent thinker. We want someone that respects precedent. You look at well, you know, Justice Kennedy at times could be very conservative, at other times he showed this incredible spark of independence like when he wrote the decision for marriage equality or the vote he took affirming Roe v. Wade.

HAYES: So I guess the question is like it looks to all of us who are watching this like this is -- all of this is pure political power right? That there`s -- no one is really making arguments or persuading here, it`s like they use pure political power to block Merrick Garland despite the fact there is no actual precedent for that. They will now use all the political power they can marshal to get whoever it is confirmed and try to overturn Roe among other things. The question is like what power do the Democrats have to stop it?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, first of all, we have the power of the people. There is an election coming up and I believe strongly that we`ve got to hold them to the McConnell rule and that is the rule that you don`t have a vote on a Supreme Court Justice during an election year. That is number one. The second power that we have is that some of our Republican colleagues, very few Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, you look at John McCain`s vote on that health care bill, when they see a nominee, there have been times where they have either quietly said we don`t want this person or they voted against them, and it is our job and you`ve seen a number of nominees in the Judiciary Committee that have fallen apart that have been taken off the agenda. So I guess I could just say this is impossible but I`m not going to do that, Chris. It is too important. I just think when you look at the political power of the people out there in the country right now, what they care about, this idea that with a situation where you`ve got one party that blocked another nominee and said you can`t do it in an election year and then they could potentially put someone through that will change the rights of women across America, that could change the rights of you under your health care to allow you to get insurance if you have a pre-existing condition, that case is coming up from Texas, those are all things that are going to be for the court and it`s our job to make that case to the American people.

HAYES: You just mentioned reproductive rights and we don`t know who the nominee is but we know the vetting process that`s happening and we know the ideological tradition that person will flow out of. Do you think if there is a vote this summer or in the fall it is -- it is fundamentally a vote on Roe?

KLOBUCHAR: It is unclear. It depends on who the President nominates. And I think part of our job here is to make that case and to get some of those Republicans to have a spine and to call up the President and say and there are a number of them that wouldn`t want to overturn Roe v. Wade and they have to make that very clear that they want a nominee that`s going to respect precedent. And I know that`s different than what he has said but we do have one, the power of the upcoming election and people have to remember that that all these rights are at stake. And then we have secondly the power of persuasion and the own power that we have as elected Senators to whoever he nominates to ask question after question after question to get out the answers to show what kind of person this is. And again, we have no idea who is going to nominate but we can do everything in our power to try to influence that decision.

HAYES: All right, Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you for making some time.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you. Thanks for having me on, Chris.

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