NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript Interview with Amy Klobuchar
Interview
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And joining us now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Klobuchar, welcome back to Meet the Press. And, first off --
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
Thanks, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
-- my condolences to you. And as an attorney, what do you believe is Justice Ginsburg's most important legacy that she'll be remembered for?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
She was a hero, an icon, a woman way ahead of her time. You know, when people told her, "Oh, you can't even go to law school," she shows them and graduates number one in her class. She made landmark decisions, Chuck, on equal rights for women when people said, "Oh no. You should have a man argue that case." And then she ends up on the very court that she argued in front of. And, again, became really an international rock star in her 80s. That is not easy to do with the name "Notorious RBG." My daughter, like so many young people, just worshipped her. And we at one point had photos taken together. And she said to me, "Mom, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to cut you out of this photo. I just want the picture to be me and the Notorious RBG when I put it on my Facebook page." She is someone that we must continue her fight. That's what this is about for me.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Well, let's talk about the current politics of this moment. Besides campaigning, besides political pressure, is there a mechanical way that Senate Democrats, something in the Senate rules, could somehow prevent this nomination from going forward?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
I'm not even getting to the Senate rules right now, Chuck, for a very important reason. I'm not going to concede that when you already have several of my colleagues saying that the way this happened, so close to the election, that the next president should be able to make the decision. The people pick the president, and the president picks the justice. That is how this works. Look at what Abraham Lincoln did the last time someone died this close to the election. He waited. He waited until after the election. To me, the fact that you've got people voting right now, including in my state, everything is on the line here. Health care is on the line. There's literally going to be an argument on the Affordable Care Act, whether or not people will continue to have health care and not get kicked off for preexisting conditions, on November 10th. So I think my Republican colleagues are the ones. They have to decide, based on what they said before. They set this new precedent in the last -- in 2016, and they've got to follow their own words.
CHUCK TODD:
But in your mind, which precedent is wrong: the one they set in 2016 or the one they're trying to create now?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
For me, whatever happened before ancient rules, whatever it is, what matters right now is that they just made these statements. They're not beholden to Mitch McConnell. They're beholden to the people that voted for them in their own states. And as people genuinely -- literally these hearts broken by Justice Ginsburg's death, showing up at the courthouse. I'm telling you, people are voting in record numbers. They were doing this before she died. We know this. We know how many people have been asking for mail-in ballots. We know the numbers. We know that Joe Biden is leading in states some people never thought he could even win because people have had it. They've had it with a president that divides people. They've had it -- we've reached 200,000 deaths with this pandemic. So if my colleagues want to look themselves in the mirror and say, "What did I just say the last time this happened? What's the precedent I set? What should I follow?." They each have to make an individual decision. And so for me, that's what this is about. It's about justice. It's about moving --
CHUCK TODD:
Well.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
-- forward as a Senate and a democracy.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. But let me ask you this. Senator Schumer told you guys on a conference call last night nothing is off the table for next year if Leader McConnell pushes through this nomination. What does that mean to you? What is "nothing off the table"? Is this packing the court? Is this getting rid of the filibuster? Is this D.C. statehood and Puerto Rico statehood? What is "nothing off the table"? What is that -- define that for us.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
I think he is talking about the fact that there's reforms that we've all looked at that you could consider. You and I have talked about this before on the show. But, again, I'm not going to concede this. This is the position of a woman who never gave up, right? When people told her she couldn't do things, she kept going. Well, I'm not going to give up that some of my colleagues here, when we already have three of them, three of them, having said that they believe that the next president, whoever wins the election. They're not saying who that's going to be. Whoever wins the election should be able to pick the justice. Then we can talk about the reforms. Because what this matters right now is what mattered three days ago before she died. And that is that people have to vote. And they vote. And they have to vote, as Michelle Obama said, like their life depends on it.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, I think you think they're going to do that. But as you know, trying to get some folks to stick by their word is something that seems to be very hard these days. So, again, assuming you don't get that, there's going to be confirmation hearings before Election Day. Do you think you can stop a confirmation vote before Election Day?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
Again, as Senator Schumer says, there's a lot of things we can try to do. But in the end, I'm not going to concede any of that because my colleagues and I have -- I do have some facts on my side here, you have a number of them that haven't said what they're going to do. You have a number of them that have already said that the next president should make the decision. You have the precedent of the only time a justice died this close to an election, Abraham Lincoln was president and he made a decision to wait until after the election. And you have the fact that the people are voting right now. And I think that creates pressure on my colleagues honestly. That's what a democracy is about. They don't want to have the Affordable Care Act thrown out when you have hundreds of millions of Americans with preexisting conditions. Are you kidding me? That's in front of us. They don't want to have more money thrown into our elections. Or while the fires are blazing on the West Coast, they don't want to have other justices that are so conservative that they literally have said, "well, you know, maybe agencies can't make decisions to regulate air and water." No, they want to have an America that reflects them.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. So if there's hearings, we'll be seeing a lot of you. Thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR:
Look forward to seeing you again, Chuck. Thank you.
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