MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar
Interview
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HAYES: Which leaves us where we are tonight. Nearly 24 hours after the president`s big first Oval Office prime-time address on his wall and no closer to any kind of resolution on the government shutdown.
Joining me now, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota. Senator, what is your view of where we stand here tonight with the government shutdown?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, (D) MINNESOTA: Well, first, when I hear that story I think that maybe he forgot Harry Truman`s famous words the buck stops here, and that he is accountable for this and has responsibility. And what I have seen missing from his speech, from his tweets, are the real people that are affected by this.
You look at the dairy farmers in Minnesota, just got the new farm bill passed, need help, may have to close down the dairy farms, but now the USDA is closed down.
You look at what`s happened with people who are going to have problems with their mortgages, who can`t pay the bills, those security officers in the airports who are now going to be working without pay, those are the real people affected by this shutdown.
And so I think we should just take those House-passed bills, and as you know a number of Republicans broke off and voted for them, because they want to end the shutdown and get a vote on them in the Senate. They`re very similar to what we already unanimously passed and send them over to his desk. That would end the shutdown.
HAYES: Right, so is there any break in the unity on your side? I mean, are you -- I mean, the strategy, as articulated by Schumer is end the shutdown and we`ll negotiate about what a border security package looks like? Is that the position?
KLOBUCHAR: You have seen us very strongly standing together, but I think the break has been on their side where you`ve seen people like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins and Cory Gardner and Tillis, they have -- Thom Tillis -- they have started to say, look, let`s just end this shutdown. So, you`ve started to see that.
But I think for those workers who he is not talking about, American leadership where at the same time he`s shut down NASA, the Chinese landed a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon for the first time. This is just wrong for American leadership and for the people of our country.
HAYES: I want to shift gears slightly to talk about your role on Senate judiciary committee because you will be having these very important hearings on the man that we were just discussing, William Barr, the president`s nominee to be attorney general. Have you been able to meet with Mr. Barr so far in your role on that committee?
KLOBUCHAR: No, Chris. And this is a first for me, because we did request a meeting. Of course, it was called at the last minute, the hearing for next week. And I have always met with major cabinet members under both the Obama administration as well as the Trump administration. I mean, I have met with the head of the botanical garden who is not on the cabinet, of course. I have met with the nominee for the patent office, Chris. But we can`t have a meeting with the nominee for one of the most important cabinet positions while this Mueller investigation is going on before the hearing. And I just think that`s wrong.
And you add to that the fact that as a citizen he filed this 19-page memo. I don`t have citizens that do that. They might, you know, send me 19 characters in a tweet about an issue, but he filed suddenly a 19 page issue like a tryout for this job where he basically espoused this very expansive view of executive power that reminds me some of what we saw in the Kavanaugh hearings.
And it seems to me the president is gathering people, albeit a qualified person who has served as attorney general before, certainly more experience than Mr. Whitaker, who is sitting there now, the acting attorney general. But you have some real issues here that we`re going to have to question him about under oath.
HAYES: I just want to make sure I understand what you`re saying here, did they just tell you no, you can`t meet him?
KLOBUCHAR: They said that I could meet him after the hearing because of the shutdown that they weren`t able to do the meeting, which we know is pretty ironic given that we have TSA officers who are out there and FBI and other government workers who are out doing their job now without pay or are furloughed. They weren`t able to bring him over, because of the shutdown and their time and focus was on that as well as the holidays. That`s what we were told.
HAYES: He did meet with Republicans, right? I think I saw a picture of him and Lindsey Graham today.
KLOBUCHAR: He did. But was not able to meet with us until after the hearing, or at least with me and I think Senator Blumenthal had also made a request.
HAYES: All right, Senator Amy Klobuchar on the Judiciary -- Senate Judiciary Committee
KLOBUCHAR: We`re ready to go next week, Chris, and I`ll have a lot of good questions.
HAYES: All right. Thanks for making time.
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