MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "Amy Klobuchar interview."
Interview
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O`DONNELL: Leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She`s a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and candidate for president. Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I really appreciate it.
KLOBUCHAR: Thanks, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: And I just want to switch gears for a moment on this breaking news that we`re getting from Hyannis Port. You worked with Ted Kennedy in the Senate and now one of his nieces reportedly died today, the news released by the family in Hyannis Port, possibly from drug overdose. I wanted your reaction to that.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, you just think of the tragedy that has hit this family. And it`s just one thing after another. Obviously, we think of them today. But this problem of drug overdoses is happening all over this country right now. And certainly we know it here with Prince in Minnesota, but it`s not just famous people. It`s everyday people. I talked about little Casey Jo, a champion swimmer at the end of the debate, who went into the emergency room and got hooked. And her last words to her mom was: mama, it`s not my fault, and she later died. This is happening because we have a lot of politicians talking about it. But just as I said in the debate, to be straightforward, these companies if it was opioids I don`t know what happened in this tragic case, but if it was opioids, we know what happened here. The market was flooded by pharma companies. People turned to opioids and they turned illegal drugs and they started taking the drugs and they`re dying. And those pharma companies had better be held responsible. It`s one of the reasons I came out with a full plan for mental health and addiction, given my own family history with my dad who had drunk driving convictions and finally got treatment. In his words he was pursued by grace and it changed his whole life. I think everyone has that same right. So, whenever I hear these stories -- and again, we don`t know exactly what happened -- whether they are in famous families or not, it makes me think about that we could be doing a better job as a country getting people into treatment, removing the stigma and then making sure that the people this that are responsible for this which has been the drug companies are paying for it.
O`DONNELL: Senator, I want to talk about the debate and make sure we reserve enough time to talk about what you were trying to achieve on the Senate floor today. To the debate, why didn`t you do it? CNN wanted you to attack your competitors on that stage. They wanted you to -- if you felt like it, to reach over and attack competitors on the other stages that you weren`t even on. But they really, really wanted you to do that. Why didn`t you do it?
KLOBUCHAR: Yes, because I don`t think this is a sporting event. I think there is more that unites our party than divides us. I do think we will have, as you have seen, legitimate discussions. I disagree with some of my colleagues and made that clear and continue to have disagreements on policy and make that clear, because I want to make the case I`m the best candidate. But we`ve got to use these debates, Lawrence, as a moment to take it to Donald Trump because there are not just base Democrats watching those debates. There is independent. There`s moderate Republican. So, there is the general election issue. But there`s also the fact that I still believe that people want to hear from us about what differentiates us, what`s the contrast, what`s our own optimistic economic agenda. And if you spend the whole time just cutting down your opponent, just to get that viral moment, then what have we done? We don`t win and we don`t do better for this country. And so, it`s just a fundamental belief of mine that maybe I won`t have that viral moment or maybe I will. I had one once in the Kavanaugh hearing just because I did my job. And that`s what I`m not looking for it by going after my opponents by saying mean things. I just don`t think that`s how do you it. Now, some people think this is a test for how you can take on Donald Trump. As I said at that debate, one of my opponents once in a debate, Republican, said to me you`re nothing but a street fighter from the iron range. And I said thank you. And you can show your tough enough to take on Donald Trump without doing it against fellow Democrats.
O`DONNELL: Well, is it one way to do it the which you did it in the debate which is you show how you are taking on Donald Trump but actually taking on Donald Trump during the debate?
KLOBUCHAR: Yes. Well, that does seem to me to be a good idea. My favorite moment for me was when he called me snow woman after my announcement in the blizzard and I had taken on climate change, and then he made fun of me for doing that in snow. And so, then, I wrote back to him, I sent out a tweet and said the science is on my side I`m climate change, Donald Trump and I`d love to see how your hair would fair in blizzard. And so, I just think there are many ways to take this guy on, but you`ve got to show the absurdity of what he has done. And one of those is what we were talking about today on the Senate floor. And that is he gut punched us on the election bill last year. Senator Lankford and myself and Senator Burr was on the bill, Warner. And, basically, the administration made calls directly, Don McGahn, the White House counsel, and stopped the bill. They called Republicans.
O`DONNELL: Let`s listen to what the president said today about Russian interference in the election since this is so relevant to what you were fighting for in the Senate floor today.
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REPORTER: Robert Mueller said last week that Russia is interfering in U.S. elections right now. Did you raise that with Vladimir Putin yesterday?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You don`t really believe this. Do you believe this now? OK.
REPORTER: He said it last week. Did you raise that with President Putin yesterday?
TRUMP: OK, fine, we didn`t talk about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: So, there is the president of the United States saying in effect, he doesn`t believe that Russian -- Russia interfered with the election or Russia plans to interfere with the election when he is confronted with that by Robert Mueller`s testimony through a reporter he says you don`t really believe this.
KLOBUCHAR: Yes, same old thing. Robert Mueller said it under oath that the Russians are doing it as we speak. Trump`s own FBI director Christopher Wray under my questioning and others just last week said the same thing. His own intelligence Director Dan Coates who is now sadly resigning said that they are getting bolder. So, it is undeniable that this is happening. They`ve done it through hacking and done it through dirty propaganda online. And both of these things we could take steps to decrease the possibility of in happening. As I said today, this is about our democracy. Hundreds of thousands of people lost lives on battlefields to protect our right to vote in our democracy. Four little girls lost life in a church in Birmingham at the height of the civil rights movement because we stood up for our democracy. So, for this guy to make jokes about it all the time it`s unpatriotic and it`s un-American. And this can`t wait for a new president, Lawrence. There are 11 states that don`t have backup paper ballots. Anything we can do to get the backup paper ballots. Some of them are partial, some don`t have it at all, because otherwise, we could have a presidential election and not know the outcome. And the second thing is making the social media companies tell us where the ads are coming from and who is paying for them so that we can have a fair election. Four billion, three to four billion is going to be spent. Your network when you run ads, you`ve got to say who is paying for those ads and what they are. Not true of Facebook or Google or Twitter or any of those companies. And their volunteer measures don`t measure up to what you have to do on network TV or radio.
O`DONNELL: Senator, I know we are not hearing the name Moscow Mitch on the Senate floor. Senate rules and customs don`t allow that and senators don`t want to talk that way about each other no matter how bad it gets. But the name does seem to be sticking, and it does seem to be sticking in politics in Kentucky, to the point where there are now reports indicating that maybe Mitch McConnell will want to negotiate something with Amy Klobuchar when he gets back from the August recess.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, right now, Senator Lankford and I -- and that actually was our bill that we did last year hasn`t been reintroduced because we continue to negotiate it. The other -- the bills that were blocked was a bill I was leading with Senator Warner and others. And then Senator Wyden and I have a bill. But what this bill does it requires backup paper ballots if you take out federal money for election that would move the states to know that`s what they have to do. And it has audit provisions. Senator Lankford and I talked today. We`re continuing to negotiate. My hope is that over the august break as long as your viewers keep calling and demanding this and using whatever names they want, that maybe we can actually get this done.
O`DONNELL: Senator, I`m kind of speechless about what I saw happen in the Senate Judiciary Committee today because I`ve never seen anything like it. I know you`ve never seen anything like it. It was a markup of a bill in that process in which the committee votes on a bill. Whenever that happens, both sides get to speak about it at minimum speak about it before there is a vote. Usually they get to amend it or offer amendments before there is a vote. Lindsey Graham just convened the committee and basically said let`s vote. Shocked Pat Leahy who had 40 years of service in the Senate, couldn`t believe what he was saying. What was your experience of what happened on your committee today?
KLOBUCHAR: Yes, I was there for the entire hearing. And it was one of the saddest things I`d ever seen. Senator Graham as we pointed out worked with us on that initial immigration bill when President Bush was in, valiantly we tried to get that done. He then supported the bill in 2013 comprehensive reform. And now, he has just gone when it comes to this issue the full Trump because what`s happened here is we would like to work with him on the issue of seeking asylum in those home countries of the Northern Triangle. But instead, he has put a bill forward we have some issues with and instead of just working with us, he rammed it through without amendment. I had some great amendments on temporary status people that are here, domestic violence victims, and we weren`t able to offer any amendments. He -- I think he broke four rules just to get it through the committee on a partisan vote. And the despite how vitriolic the immigration is right now, there are people of goodwill that worked together on this in the Senate in the past and want to in the future. And that`s why this was such a sad moment. The bill I suppose is now headed to the floor.
O`DONNELL: Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I really appreciate it.
KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you. Thank you, Lawrence. It`s great to be on.
O`DONNELL: Thank you.
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