MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "Beto O'Rourke returns to campaign trail."
Interview
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O`DONNELL: Today Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeted this is not what great democracies do. Vociferous disagreement on issues - yes denying Congressional members entry, no. As for the President`s message that allowing the Congresswomen to visit Israel would be a "sign of weakness?" Joining our discussion now from Little Rock, Arkansas, is Senator Amy Klobuchar from the great state of Minnesota and a Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She`s a 2020 Presidential candidate. Senator Klobuchar, I`d like to hear more of your reaction to this thing we`ve never seen in our history before, the President urging a foreign country this case Israel to ban two member of Congress from entering and Israel banned them.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I could not believe this today. Just when you suspend belief and you think things can`t get worse, this happened. And that is because I have always seen Israel as our beacon of democracy in the Mideast. And like your previous guest, I think that is so important for those of us that support Israel. And I cannot believe this happened. I don`t agree with everything these two Congresswomen have said, and I have made that very clear as have others. But it is a much bigger step to suddenly say you are not going to allow these elected members of Congress to visit your country. And the fact that the Prime Minister did it immediately after our President sent out his hateful tweet and then just reacted, I don`t see this as a sign of strength on either of their part. And as far as President Trump, you know, I still remember when John McCain was banned by Vladimir Putin to go to Russia. That happened. Or Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, that happened. And so why he would encourage an ally, a friend in Israel to do the same is just beyond belief. And as I said earlier this afternoon, it is not a sign of strength. Exporting intolerance that is a sign of weakness and our country is so much better than that. Democracy thrives on a vigorous discussion of the issues, and you can have big disagreement but you don`t ban people from going to another nation.
O`DONNELL: I want to get to a Presidential campaign issue that has been low volume up to now, but as the global economy starts to stagger including because reasons beyond just the Trump tariffs but very much including the Trump tariffs. I want to listen to something President Trump said today about the Trump tariffs. I don`t normally show video of Donald Trump on this program because it`s such a waste of time. I`m doing it now.
KLOBUCHAR: Special treat, because I`m on, thank you.
O`DONNELL: Well, I`m doing it just for you as a Presidential debate rehearsal because there will come a time when one of you Democrats is on the stage with this person listening to these things in the Presidential debate. So let`s start with what President Trump said--
KLOBUCHAR: I look forward too.
O`DONNELL: --and hear your response to that. We`ll begin with what the President said about tariffs today.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The tariffs, we`ve taken in close to $60 billion in tariff money. And the consumer has not paid for it. Now, at some point they may have to pay something, but they understand that. And who really understands that is our great farmer. The farmers of this country really understand--
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O`DONNELL: Senator Klobuchar, your 60-second response. Actually, take as many seconds as you want.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you. I guess he has not talked to the farmers that I have spoken with in my own state and in Iowa and here in Arkansas where they have a lot of soybean farmers. What`s happened is he is basically destroying their way of life. Yes, there is some money that comes over from the Department of Agriculture but as one farmer told me when he closed the door sobbing, he said, look, I`ll take the hand out but it`s not what I want. This farm has been in my family for generations and I want to give it to my kids. And what he has done, instead of going back to the negotiating table, he has been treating those farmers and a lot of workers in the country like poker chips at one of his bankrupt casinos. I was thinking about this when I was at the Clinton library today in Little Rock, and you remember when James Carville said, said it`s the economy stupid, remember back then? Well, what this President is doing is doing stupid things to our economy, an economy that he inherited where workers and businesses had gotten us out of that rut and put us in a stronger place. And instead of dealing with issues facing us like work force and immigration reform and doing something when it comes to the debt, what is he doing? He`s making it harder and harder and harder. And so, no, that is not what I`m hearing from the farmers. I know a bunch of them voted for him, but I know that they`re stepping back and saying has this been better for me and how is this working for our rural communities? And that`s why I think it`s important that you have a leader of a ticket that is willing to go like I have today to places not just where it`s comfortable but where it`s uncomfortable to make sure that we know that we can win in red states. We can win in red states like we won the Governorship of Kansas. Like, we turned over Wisconsin which was a purple state. We can do this but only if we meet people where they are.
O`DONNELL: Senator Klobuchar, in order to allow you full sentences and a little bit of time to breathe I`d like to squeeze in a break here so that when we come back we`ll actually have more time to talk. And we`re going to get to why you`re in Arkansas today which is not one of the early Democratic primary states. So we`ll be right back with more from Senator Klobuchar from Arkansas.
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O`DONNELL: We`re back with more of our discussion with Senator Amy Klobuchar, but first let`s listen to what the Mayor of Philadelphia had to say today after Philadelphia police survived a gun battle in which six police officers were wounded by a shooter who eventually surrendered.
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JIM KENNY (D) MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA: If the State and Federal Government don`t want to stand up to the NRA and some other folks, let us police ourselves. But they preempt us on all kinds of gun control legislation. Our officers deserve to be protected and they don`t deserve to be shot at by a guy for hours with an unlimited supply of weapons and unlimited supply of bullets. So it`s disgusting and we`ve got to do something about it.
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O`DONNELL: We`re back with Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Candidate for President. And Senator, your reaction to what you just heard the Mayor say about the Federal Government is getting in their way on gun control measures and putting their police officers in Philadelphia and elsewhere in danger.
KLOBUCHAR: He`s right. You heard Congressman O`Rourke just talk about the extraordinary courage of the people in El Paso and you think about those police officers in Dayton that got there in one minute, Lawrence. And yet in 30 seconds nine people already killed. And you think of those police officers in Philadelphia. They`re putting themselves on the front line as well as ordinary civilians and yet Washington doesn`t match that with its own courage. And I have seen and one of the reasons I`m here today, I came because the Democratic Party which is strong here and kicking in Arkansas and ready to take back some seats, they invited me to come and speak, but I spent my day today with a number of people who have come out on this issue including one legislator in a red district and she won her seat against a Republican and ran in part on Gun Safety. There`s been a seat change going on in this country. The Democratic Party Chairman, maybe you remember this in 2008, was gunned down in hid his office. And one of this young women who was there said she`s still suffering from just being there, she was there when he was gunned down right there in that office. This is happening all over America. And that`s why those bills and we talk about this last week - those bills are on Mitch McConnell`s doorstep, background check bill, waiting period bill to close that Charleston loophole, my bill to close the boyfriend loophole to protect women from domestic abusers, and they just sit there. So very shortly we are going to be back in Washington, and the Republicans in the Senate have to show the same courage that we`ve seen across the country from police officers, from ordinary citizens and from people in red districts who are willing to stand up, to hunters who want to see the change. And that`s why I`m taking this not just to the blue areas, but I think it`s really important as I`ve done in all my campaigns and I`ll do as President, to unite our country. We are one America and we can do good things but we shouldn`t be dividing people, we should be bringing them together.
O`DONNELL: A new Fox News poll shows that 67 percent favor banning assault rifles. 67 percent, why can`t 67 percent work their will in the United States Senate?
KLOBUCHAR: Exactly. And you`ve seen the Republican Congressmen in Dayton come out for a ban on military-style assault weapons as well as those high capacity magazines. That`s where the American people are right now, and my view is the reason because Donald Trump could have just made a call to Mitch McConnell and we could have been back there the next day. But I think trying to see if the American people their opinion will add, if they`ll change their minds. Not this time. You know why? They know how quickly those people were murdered. 30 seconds despite the best efforts of Law Enforcement. That is going to be scorched in people`s minds. They`re not going to forget that. So if they won`t let us vote on an assault weapon ban or magazine limitations in addition to the bills that have already passed the House of Representatives, then they`re going have to deal with the American people in the election.
O`DONNELL: Senator Amy Klobuchar gets tonight`s LAST WORD. And Senator as you know, we are here for the Presidential Candidates. Whatever you can make it we will make this space for you. Thank you for joining us tonight.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you Lawrence. It was just great to be on.
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