MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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Joining us now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She`s chair of the Senate Rules Committee. And she was one of the senators who introduced the Freedom to Vote Act on Tuesday.

Senator Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thanks, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: Now, I know you`ve been in the room negotiating this bill with Joe Manchin and Senator Warnock and others. I know you know what is going to happen, so you can now please tell us exactly what is going to happen.

KLOBUCHAR: All right. Well, first, congratulations on your great interview with Governor Hochul. Second, it made me smile when I heard Governor Warnock. He`s an incredible leader.

And when you look at what happens in Georgia, the law that they passed that would basically say you can`t vote on weekends during the runoff period, you know why we need basic federal voting rights in place. And we are actually quite excited about this bill. It`s called the Freedom to Vote Act. Every single member of the group that Senator Schumer brought together which of course included Senator Manchin as well as Senators King, Senator Tester from Montana, Senators Warnock and Padilla and Senator Kaine, Senator Merkley who led the For the People Act and myself.

And we`ve all come to an agreement, there is a lot of excitement in our caucus. Why? The bill puts -- finally has all of us together, our names on that bill. That matters. You can`t get anywhere if you don`t have a policy agreement to have mail in balloting without an excuse to make sure that people are able to have their voices heard by not having partisan gerrymandering, the DISCLOSE Act, so you can`t hide behind dark money, and you can`t hide behind it anymore. It`s really an incredible bill.

And I disagree. We`re still reaching out to Republicans. I heard what you said at the beginning and that`s one of Senator Manchin`s jobs, one of my jobs, and we`re continuing to do that. The bill was revealed yesterday and now, we have the next week or so to keep working on that and we will continue that outreach.

And from there, we`ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[22:29:50]

But I want people to understand this is the very first time that we`ve had this kind of an agreement on the bill also working with our house counterparts. We don`t have time to waste and it was really important that we came together.

O`DONNELL,: Well, it did seem that Senator McConnell yesterday indicated that there would be no Republican votes but let`s hope you can get the magic ten in the next week.

But let`s talk about that bridge you just mentioned that you said we will cross that bridge when we come to it. That bridge, of course, is how do you get around the 60 vote threshold in the Senate if you don`t get ten Republicans? So have you discussed that bridge with Senator Manchin?

KLOBUCHAR: Many people have talked to him about this and he has publicly said he`s open to the idea of a standing filibuster. You and I have talked about that where the other side would be forced to make their case for voter suppression to the people of this country when we, by the way, know that over 80 percent of the Americans -- of Americans actually want dark money contributions disclosed. We know that over -- way over 70 percent of them want to be able to have early voting and this includes Democrats and Republicans. The people are on our side on this.

And there are other reforms. You know I personally favor abolishing the filibuster. But we will continue discussions.

Right now my focus is on getting the information out there to the public about this bill -- Freedom to Vote Act. We`ve been working with the House. We`re really excited about it and we can`t even get to that procedural moment until we make sure everyone is on board and it appears so far the bill has gotten rave reviews and that makes me feel good and puts us in a place where we can move forward.

O`DONNELL: What is the condition, the health condition of the infrastructure bill part two in the Senate -- what is described as the not exactly accurately but the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package?

KLOBUCHAR: You know what I describe the bill as? That bill is about bringing costs down for the people of America. And one of my major focuses is prescription drugs.

The president made a big deal out of this at the State of Union and we`ve been talking about this in ads and tweets forever and it`s time to get it done.

You know that that bill`s going to be about child care for the people of this country which they badly need. We have the physical infrastructure bill done in the Senate. It`s a great bill.

But we need the employees trained and the people through school and the like to be able to work on that infrastructure, to be able to put out that broad band. That`s what this second bill is about.

And so I think that we`re making progress. We always knew there was going to be intense negotiations about this bill. The president is now involved and I think we all understand these two bills go together.

To get the bill, the Senate bill that`s already passed the Senate through the House, we`re going to need votes in the House. And to do that, we`re going to need support for the second package, as well.

And I continue having sat through many, many leadership meetings on this, we will get to that point. It`s just going to be a lot of negotiation. And you worked in the Senate, Lawrence, you know it`s not easy to get things done. But we know the American people need this bill.

O`DONNELL: Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you very much for joining us again tonight.

KLOBUCHAR: Thanks, Lawrence.

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