Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. John Kennedy

Interview

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MACCALLUM: One of the biggest accomplishments as far as conservatives are concerned of the Trump Presidency is the far-reaching impact on the courts. Two new conservative Supreme Court justices have bent the curve to the right on the Supreme Court and the President has appointed 83 judges to the lower courts as well. Now, this woman Neomi Rao will have her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow.

She was nominated to replace now Justice Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit of Circuit Court of Appeals as the second highest court in the land. But already The Wall Street Journal and Politico say that they think that she may be about to get the Kavanaugh treatment for her conservative writings and her work to shrink bureaucracy as Head of President Trump's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Here now Senator -- Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Both are members of that Senate Judiciary Committee. They will question Rao they are also the co- sponsors of a bill that would strengthen privacy on the Internet and we want to ask them about that tonight as well. Great to have both of you here.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN.: Thank you, Martha.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY, R-LA.: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Thank you very much for being here. What are your thoughts, first of all, on Neomi Rao? Are you concerned that she might have a tough time and what kind of questions do you want -- do you have for her?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, you know, these hearings, the purpose of them is to ask questions and ask tough questions. You got to understand someone -- certainly, Senator Kennedy knows that from some of the questions he's asked. And I have not favored this nominee in the past because I think one thing that your listeners should know about is that in fact, this is someone that favors executive power at all costs. She wants to get rid of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and I'm sure you have some people that are watching that are big fans but it is brought back $12 billion for the consumers of America.

So I have some questions to ask about that as well as her views on executive power and a number of these nominees share those views.

MACCALLUM: She has -- just to give people some background on this candidate, she clerked for Justice Thomas. She also worked for President Bush 43. And as I said, she currently is running this Trump administration arm of the OMB which has been focused on cutting regulation and a lot of people credit that, Senator Kennedy, for helping to stimulate the economy.

There are writings from 1994 that are also considered to be problematic from college. She said that a good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober and if she drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice. Knowing where we went in the Kavanaugh hearing, is it likely that this is going to be digging back to 1994 as well?

KENNEDY: I don't know yet. I'm going to do what I always do. I'm just going to ask tough questions. I don't know the nominee. She's impressive on paper. Yale undergrad, Chicago Law, she's a former professor, she has government experience. I want to test her judicial temperament. I won't test her knowledge of the law. I want to make sure she can be impartial.

She will bring as all good nominees do points of view to the -- to the confirmation hearing. That's OK. You want a nominee to have a point of view. If they're nominated to a federal judgeship and they haven't thought about issues in the world, they're not qualified to sit on the bench. The real issue for me is whether she can put aside her personal beliefs and follow the law and that's what I'll be getting.

MACCALLUM: There's some speculation that she could be considered if there is another opening on the Supreme Court, what do you think about that Senator Klobuchar?

KLOBUCHAR: Again, I have a poster in the past for another position, her current position and I think we need judges in place that do follow the law, and I find some of her views on things and they're not all the way back from law school or other times, some of them are very current. I just don't see that kind of even-handedness that I'd like to see in a judge.

KENNEDY: My standard is pretty simple for all judges whether they're Democrats, Republicans, Independents. I want a judge who would tell us what the law is not what the law ought to be. That's the role of the of the Congress. I don't expect to judge to be a super legislator. The law is not supposed to be politics practiced a different way. You're supposed to be a judge. You're supposed to call the balls on the strikes.

MACCALLUM: (INAUDIBLE) should convince both sides as that she enters this job in a new vein as a judge and leaves some of those -- perhaps some of those ideas in the background as she takes on each one of these judicial issues. I want to talk to both of you about your Internet Privacy Act that you're working on together. Here is one of the -- one of the highlight moments from Mark Zuckerberg testimony when he was before the Senate not too long ago. Watch this.

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KENNEDY: Your user agreement sucks. I'm going to suggest to you that you go back home and re-write it. But tell them you want it written in English in non-Swahili so the average American can understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: I think most people feel like the cat is so far out of the bag on this stuff. It's impossible to imagine how you put this genie back in the bottle and get people their privacy back. Senator Klobuchar?

KLOBUCHAR: I think our laws have to be as sophisticated as the data that they are collecting in the way they're doing business. For so long they have been telling us, hey, trust us, trust us. And meanwhile, they have been collecting everyone's information and their private e-mails and their texts.

MACCALLUM: But we were checking the box and letting them do it.

KLOBUCHAR: Exactly. So that's why --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Because the agreement was, as you say --

KLOBUCHAR: Yes. Our bill --

MACCALLUM: -- you said it sucked. I think you might be right.

KLOBUCHAR: And we came together across the aisle. We may not agree on every judge, but we agree on this. And that is that we should protect American's privacy. And what our bill simply does is say, hey, it's got to be in plain language. You should be able to opt out if you don't want to have your data shared.

And then if there is a breach like what we just saw in the last week with Apple or what we saw with Facebook several months over the last few months is that you've got to find out about it within 72 hours. And even Zuckerberg himself at the hearing when I asked him does that make sense to you, he said yes, it does.

MACCALLUM: You know, I think it's so generational on this. I think that, you know, some people don't -- they are very uncomfortable with their private information getting out there. And then I talk to younger people who say, you know, I'm okay with it as the contract. You know, I don't care when ads pop-up when I'm into something.

KENNEDY: But some day they will be uncomfortable. And I didn't want to be here, Martha. I didn't have to regulate my Facebook. But here's what we find. Facebook is no longer a company. It's a country, 2 billion users, $40 billion in cashflow. They influence what we think. How we vote. What we buy, even how we feel.

Now, Facebook says, yes, but you give your consent. No, you don't. Have you -- their terms and conditions, you could hide a dead body in there and you'd never find. Nobody understands even -- if they read it, nobody understands. It's not informed consent.

And we have waited -- I've waited for Facebook to step up to the plate and say, OK, we recognize the problem. Here's to suggest its solution. And all they've done is deny, install, reinstall, then they apologize, and then say they would do better. But you have to judge them by their deeds not their word.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, their anniversary is 15 years ago today. And I thought, wow, life has changed a lot in the last 15 years since the advent of social media and so much that we have given up in the realm of our privacy. And you know, I wonder if people start -- as I was saying, you know, they stop looking things up because you know if you look something up that you might want to shop for the ads are going to follow you for the next week and a half.

KLOBUCHAR: And this is for the good of the citizens but also the companies because these are fantastic companies. They have incredibly changed the way that we can interact and made it easier to talk to people. But at the same time, you've got players that aren't looking out for us. You've got they can't track their own data.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: They don't -- you know, if Congress fixes (ph) all these, I think they are just going to figure out ways to get around it.

KLOBUCHAR: I think that what we are trying to do is just give citizens some power here to say I -- we know you can do all of this stuff to me, but I don't want you to do it. And I want to take back some of my power over my own information so you can't do it.

MACCALLUM: And then they are going to say well, you can't talk to your friends. You can't see your friends' photos unless you check the box and you just, you know, you're going to -- not have --

(CROSSTALK)

KENNEDY: Not if they have competition. Not if they have competition. And we'll have -- maybe have to address that --

(CROSSTALK)

KLOBUCHAR: And I trust --

KENNEDY: -- and through another venue. All I am looking for -- all I'm looking, if people want to give up all of their data in exchange for being able to see what their friends had for dinner Saturday night, that's OK. But it's got to be informed consent. And it's not informed consent right now.

MACCALLUM: Well, it's great to see --

(CROSSTALK)

KENNEDY: People have no idea.

MACCALLUM: -- you're all working together on it. Senator Klobuchar, thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

KLOBUCHAR: -- from Louisiana --

MACCALLUM: From Minnesota to Louisiana, Senator Kennedy, thank you.

KENNEDY: Two great states.

KLOBUCHAR: All right.

MACCALLUM: Good to have you both here. Thanks a lot. Hope you come back soon.

KLOBUCHAR: Thanks.

MACCALLUM: We'll be watching.

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