MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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HAYES: Until very recently the Secure Election Act seemed like a sure  thing, a bipartisan bill with the sole purpose of protecting our voting  systems from interference. Republican Roy Blunt who was the chairman of  the powerful Senate Rules Committee, was set to mark up the bill on  Wednesday, with the expectation of a full Senate vote in October. That  markup never happened. No explanation was given as to why, until yesterday  when Yahoo! News reported the bill had, quote, "been held up in the Senate  at the behest of the White House, which opposed the proposed legislation."

The White House then told Yahoo! News that while the administration, quote,  "appreciates congress`s interest in election security, the Department of  Homeland Security has all the statutory authority it needs to assist state  and local officials to improve the security of existing election  infrastructure."

Lead Democrat on the bill, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, joins me  tonight. What happened here?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, (D) MINNESOTA: It was a shocker, Chris, because the  bill was going so well. Senator Lankford and I introduced the bill, and  he`s still devoted to getting it done. As you know, he`s a conservative  Republican from Oklahoma, and Senator Blunt in good faith set the hearing.

So what we heard was there was objections from Republican leadership in the  Senate and  then some Republican secretaries of state.

I talked today with the head of the Secretary of State Association, the  Vermont secretary of state who`s a Democrat, and he wants to work to get  this done.

We also of course had the White House making calls. I heard this  personally. From some senators. And then I think the statement pretty  much backs it up. Not only did they say the part  you that read, but they also said "we cannot support legislation with  inappropriate mandates or that makes -- moves power or funding from the  states to Washington for the planning and operations of elections."

So Chris, what the bill does is it just creates incentives by saying you`re  not going to get federal money for your election equipment unless you go to  backup paper ballots, and nine states only have  partial paper ballots, five, including New Jersey, don`t have them at all.  And that is why a lot of us  bipartisan felt that we should have that requirement in place if they  wanted to get the federal money as well as require audits so we can check  up on all of this later.

We are under attack by a foreign government, and we have to respond.

HAYES: So two things that are strange here. One is the White House will  oppose legislation all the time. I mean, that`s a thing that happens. It  happens under Democratic control, Republican control, but there`s a weird  kind of shadiness here. The White House could have just issued a statement  where they said we don`t like this bill, or they could have been public  about it, but instead Blunt just kills it out of nowhere and then finally  when asked about it they release a statement. Was that weird to you?

KLOBUCHAR: It was, although I will tell you, even the night before Roy  Blunt called me and he`s trying to get this thing put together, we`re going to continue to work on this.

I felt like there may have been influences with the Federalist Society, you  name it. I have no idea. But it felt like they were pushing back because  of some attempt to put best practices into law so we can -- at least if  we`re going to help the states since Maine and North Dakota and Arkansas  cannot protect themselves from a Vladimir Putin cyberattack, then we put  some best practices into law.

I still think we have a chance to move forward. I wish they`d been more  forthright and certainly done it early on, because Lankford and I have had  this out there for a year with Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Graham,  Senator Burr and Warner support the bill. This is a major effort.

And so we just have to get this done with 74 days before the election.

HAYES: So, here`s the thing, this is the kind of legislating that I think  there was more common as sort of an older model of how congress works,  which I think has changed in lots of ways. And the White House comes in  and they basically nuke it.

But you know, you`re a co-equal branch of government. Roy Blunt doesn`t  take orders from the White House. Roy Blunt is a United States senator and  he`s a powerful member of the Senate. You guys could just pass the thing,  I mean, if you like it.

KLOBUCHAR: Let me get to the problem here. We had the votes, that`s true,  with Senator Blunt`s support, but we didn`t have the Republican support we  needed on the committee, not to pass it but to then pass it on the floor.

And we needed Senator McConnell to bring it up on the floor. So now we`re  going back,  negotiating again. Practically, we want to get this done more than score a  political point.

HAYES: All right, speaking of sort of bipartisan legislating, I want to  ask you a question about someone you`re close to, John McCain, the senator  from Arizona, of course, whose family announced today that he will be  refusing any subsequent medical treatment for his cancer and thanking all  the people that have cared for him. And I`m just wondering as someone  who`s worked with him, who considers him a friend, your thoughts about  Senator McCain today.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, this was heartbreaking today. And my husband and I went  to visit John and Cindy a little over a month ago. And I`m telling you, he  still had his humor, this irascible spirit. And he is someone that so many  times has showed this incredible independence. And for me, he is a mentor.  He went with me and took me on a trip to Asia where it was all filled with  men in every room and he would always say when they would turn to Lindsey,  he would say Senator Klobuchar is the ranking Democrat on this trip. She  will go next.

And he is someone that has done that for so many members of the senate, so  our heart goes out to them right now. And this is a terrible, terrible  disease as Cindy mentioned to me when we communicated in the past week.  And we`re just hoping against hope that something changes. But right now it seems like a very difficult situation.

HAYES: You just said something that Chris Murphy said earlier today, and  it`s something I think I didn`t quite have as clear a picture on is his role in mentoring members of the U.S. Senate when they get to the Senate, 
whether they be Republican or Democrat.

KLOBUCHAR: Exactly. And he was willing to go on bills with me and has  been willing like that Honest Ads Act about taking on the social media  companies.

And he`s done that so many times, where, you know, for some of us on the  Democratic side sure, he takes positions we don`t agree with, but many  times mentoring is introducing people to things, taking them around the  world so they understand, including conservative Republicans. How wemust  work with the rest of the world, being strong on immigration reform, being  out there taking on the mean-spirited rhetoric of the Trump administration.  He has been a true leader for this country.

HAYES Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for making time tonight.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you.

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