FOX "Fox News Channel"-Transcript

Interview

FOX "Fox News Channel"-Transcript

MR. SHAWN: They made a decision that will have to be reviewed. That perhaps an understatement as the governor, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, indicates that there, of course, will be an investigation of exactly what happened and the decisions that allowed that bridge to say open.

We're now joined by Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is a Democrat of Minnesota, who has been very involved with the situation.

Senator, thank you for joining us. And our hearts, of course, go out to the people of your state. What do officials do now? What do you do to make the bridge safer?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, Eric, first of all, thank you for having us on and for covering this. I just hope that the country is, first of all, seeing how Minnesota responded to this -- the tremendous work of the police and fire and medical personnel; the woman diving in over and over. It was -- it was well-coordinated but mostly it had a lot of courage. And I think it's a good example.

The second piece of this is, what do we do about this bridge? As I said yesterday, a bridge in the middle of America just shouldn't fall into a river. And we want to make sure it doesn't happen to any other bridge again. This bridge wasn't just in my backyard, it was practically in my front yard. It's about eight blocks from my house and it's right in the heart of a university area.

I think we, first of all, have to get to the bottom of what happened here. And this means a thorough investigation looking at every piece of evidence -- the video, which I think I've heard from the investigators, is going to be incredibly helpful because it shows where the bridge first buckled; and then all of the evidence on the scene; as well as the eye witness accounts.

From there, our community, of course, is very concerned about rebuilding this bridge. Just today, I'm here in Washington after coming back from Minnesota working with Senator Coleman to get a bill through that lifts the cap on the amount of damages we can get for this particular tragedy. So we're working to get that done.

So what we're doing right now is helping any way we can with the recovery. We're working on the rebuilding and, really, the rehabilitation of our spirit there. And I just -- I have to say that I know it's so incredibly frustrating for people. It is for me, and for my neighbors, and for these families that we still don't know exactly what went wrong. But I believe, as a former prosecutor, that until you have all the facts it's pretty hard to reach some conclusions.

But I will say --

MR. SHAWN: But Senator, the facts are the bridge fell. The facts are that in 2005 it was seen as structurally deficient. And the facts also show that MINDOT, as the governor said -- the Minneapolis Department of Transportation, said it was okay. And you guys in Congress have, what, a $286 billion package. You think that's enough to protect all of our bridges, all across the country that could have this same problem?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know, I think we have to make significant investments in our infrastructure. I have long said that. I believe that our priorities are messed up. That's one of the reasons I ran for office. I've got to tell you, when we've spent nearly $500 billion dollars in Iraq and we've got bridges falling apart, we've got a problem in this country. So I am a proponent of putting more money into infrastructure but I will tell you this. I just want to make clear, until we know exactly what happened it's sort of hard to point fingers on who did it, or who did what. And I'm just one that likes to get the facts.

MR. SHAWN: Well, you see a connection between the war in Iraq and the bridge falling?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I see a connection between messed-up priorities in our country. And I have no idea what the real issue was with this bridge in terms of -- and the investigators have said this, what exactly failed. But I see a connection between -- not plugging up levees in New Orleans; not being able to afford health care; not being able to send our kids to college, when you're in the middle class, when tuition's gone up 100 percent -- and having given a bunch of oil giveaways, and given spending $500 billion in Iran. Yes, I do see a connection with messed-up priorities. But can I say that that's what was exactly the problem with this bridge -- no. I don't think anyone can say that.

MR. SHAWN: Yeah. Of course not. But you do have a point, I think, that all of us want our bridges safe and we want Congress and our government to protect us and do something about it before this happens anywhere again.

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

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, it was -- it was wonderful to be on. Look forward to being on again.

MR. SHAWN: Yes, absolutely. And good luck to you and to your efforts.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Okay. Thank you.

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