MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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Senator Amy Klobuchar is a Democrat from Minnesota. She serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee which released that major report today. She joins me now. Senator Klobuchar, moments ago, it looks like enough Republicans voted to move forward with the vote on the debt ceiling. So, let`s just start with that. Is that correct?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): That`s correct. I literally, Chris, am a few yards away from the Senate floor because we have a series of votes tonight with Senator Blunt`s vote as well as Senator Rounds` vote, 11 Republicans. But I will note, only 11 Republicans voted with every single Democrat, all 50 Democrats, to make sure that we stand by our country`s obligation, otherwise, our credit rating would have plummeted. We would have basically brought regular people with interest rates rising and unemployment going up.

It`s unbelievable that they brought us to this brink. But in the end, they caved. And Senator McConnell after saying he wouldn`t do it, agreed that through December, and that`s what we have now, through December, to work this out.

And most importantly, for us, this is a time period where we can get the Build Back Better bills done. And we`re not going to go into that tonight. But you know, there`s a lot of work to do. We`re excited about that possibility. And I`m just so glad that the Democrats push this and we were able to do this without going through some crazy procedural mass and put the country`s credit rating at risk.

HAYES: Yes, although we`ll see where we are in a month. I will say that you`re right. McConnell did cave. Not only did he cave, he really screwed his caucus on this. I got to say, I`m I rarely sympathetic to the Ted Cruz of the world, but it didn`t seem like he was like we`re united, we`re united. Well, no, we`re going to -- we`ll provide the 10 votes. And you can see it in the fact that he only got 11 today. They don`t seem very happy with them.

KLOBUCHAR: They seem in a bit of a disgruntled mood about it, but such as life. What I care about is that we stood united, we had a strategy, and our strategy was to govern and govern with the President of the United States, and we did it.

HAYES: So, let`s talk about this report. It`s pretty shocking the stuff in there, the new detail, the level of tracker that was being brought to bear on these officials. And it was real, serious sustained pressure. What is your big takeaway from what you`ve learned in the course of this investigation and the final report?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, my first is actually what you said in your opening which really went into the weeds which people need to do on this. As you said, nothing about this makes us better, right? What we knew before, this only makes it worse and more troubling.

I think the first thing is just the repeated pressure. We knew about the lawsuits, hundreds of lawsuits all over the country and false claims thrown out by courts. We knew that he tried to get the local officials fired. Look what happened in Georgia. But what this report shows is the repeated pressure on the Department of Justice, nine different meetings.

I think one of the scariest things to me with that no, I`m reading from the report where there`s a handwritten note of a phone call during which President Trump tells Department of Justice leadership just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest. And you see with Barr`s departure, more and more pressure on Acting Attorney General Rosen who actually was a witness.

I attended this part of the questioning when Acting Attorney General, then- Acting Attorney General, now private citizen Rosen, was asked questions. And that was pretty damning. And I think you see this in the report as well as what we`ve learned about Georgia where the U.S. Attorney was fired for not violating the law, basically, that U.S. attorney said no, I`m not going to do what you want.

[20:15:01]

HAYES: I want to ask about your colleague Chuck Grassley. Now, you`ve known Chuck Grassley a long time. I`ve covered Chuck Grassley for a long time. I would -- I would call Chuck Grassley a kind of capital N, capital R normal Republican. He cares about foreign policy. He`s been there for a long time.

You know, here`s this Minority Report that basically is like use the kind of thing you would like to see in a segment on OAN or Fox News. It, you know, it attempts to defend the president by basically saying he never actually pulled off the coup, and then he`s going to go be at a rally with him this weekend. Like, what does that say that Chuck Grassley of all people is aligning himself with this man who tried to do this?

KLOBUCHAR: I think we`ve seen very few exceptions where Republicans have been willing to really stand up to this. One of them is Liz Cheney, over in the House. And I will note, I`m not sure how much you focused on this. As we look as we go forward that House investigation which is bipartisan over in the House where they`re really digging deep issuing subpoenas, something that we are unable to do unless we have bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, that they are doing that and moving forward is going to be really helpful.

And our report here, which is, you know, uncovered a bunch of new stuff, I think will be helpful to them in that effort as well.

HAYES: Final question for you is about accountability for Jeffrey Clark. I want to note there`s a letter from the chair, the chairman of your committee, asking the D.C. Bar to open investigation to Clark`s compliance with the applicable rules of professional conduct. Why is that important?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, you have got a lawyer that was basically not -- in my mind, when I look at this report sitting in on a lot of the questioning. When I look at this, I think, wow, this is the lawyer that wasn`t following a line. He was -- your oath, and he took oath in his job. Your oath is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It`s not to be the President`s lawyer when you`re at the Justice Department.

And so, when I look at what he did, and the pressure and what he tried to do, I understand why Senator Durbin believes we need to call this to the attention of the people that decide legal ethics in the jurisdiction in which he practices.

HAYES: Senator Amy Klobuchar who I think paid me the compliment of saying I got into the weeds in my opening monologue which I`m going to take it -- I`m going to take --

KLOBUCHAR: Well, you`re Chris Hayes. That`s it.

HAYES: I`m going to take it as a compliment. Thank you.

KLOBUCHAR: I meant it all positive.

HAYES: I know you did.

KLOBUCHAR: It was so good.

HAYES: I know you did. Thank you very much, Senator.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Chris Hayes.

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