MSNBC - Transcript

Interview

MS. HALL: Right now, I am joined by Minnesota's Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, supporter for Barack Obama.

Thank you so much for joining us.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Tamron.

MS. HALL: So Barack Obama made the first call to John McCain. He is the one who started the ball rolling if you will to discuss this. But what do you make of Senator McCain's reaction and the decision to go public before the two spoke? As you well know, some are saying it appears or it makes it look like Barack Obama was asleep at the wheel or was caught off guard.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know, let me say, first of all, Barack Obama has been right on this issue from the beginning. You now see the president talking about a lot of the things that Barack Obama talked about the first day that we have to protect the taxpayers, that we have to do more than just have a three-page plan for $700 billion, that we have to put more things in place to make sure executives aren't ripping us off and taking that money -- that this is about the American people.

So I think that movement that Barack Obama has pushed is a good thing. In terms of what happened yesterday, it was Barack Obama that reached out to Senator McCain. Senator McCain has admitted that he didn't even read this plan back on Tuesday. He suddenly -- when we're on the eve of a debate claims that he wants to cancel it. This makes no sense to me -- I mean, Mississippi isn't that far from Washington, D.C. They can work and negotiate as the congressional committees have been doing for days now. McCain can do that, still make it down to the debate, do the debate and come back. As Senator Obama so clearly said, when you're president, you've got to balance a lot of things and do more than one thing at once.

MS. HALL: Well, let me ask you. Senator Obama said that he wants to keep the presidential politics out of these negotiations. He's accepted this invite to head to Washington this evening or this afternoon to talk about it.

So how does he keep presidential politics out of it?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, he has made very clear in proposing the joint statement to Senator McCain that there's no Democratic solution, there's no Republican solution, there's an American solution. We all know what got us into this mess in the first place. The administration was not minding the store. But we have to put that behind us for the next few days and work on the solution to this and that's what Barack Obama has been saying.

The debate itself, it's about national security. I can't think of a better time than to have the candidates debate. We only have 40 days before this election.

MS. HALL: Right.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: To try to cancel a debate 40 days out when there's only three debates to go, one vice presidential debate, the day they selected for next week is the one that McCain suggested to do the debate, the day of the vice presidential? This makes no sense.

MS. HALL: Speaking of suggestions, what do you think of the idea and it's late in the game here, but the clock is ticking, changing the conversation or the tenor of the debate to the economy? Is that a possibility?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know, that's going to be between the two candidates. I think that would be fine. But I think or to split it up hour-by-hour, whatever they want to do, but the focus is you don't cancel a debate when the American people are thirsting for leadership right now.

MS. HALL: All right. Thank you very much, senator.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.

MS. HALL: Appreciate your time. A lot is happening there.

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