MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN)

SUBJECT: DIPLOMACY AND VENEZUELA INTERVIEWER: ANDREA MITCHELL

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MS. MITCHELL: With me right now, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Along with North Dakotas senators, has been working to secure Roxana Saberi's release.

Senator, thank you very much. Here you are, the only senator from Minnesota, and you're also doing the work for North Dakota in colleague -- in working with your colleagues --

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know --

MS. MITCHELL: -- there, but -- (laughs.)

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I think that Senator Dorgan and Conrad do a great job of that. But --

MS. MITCHELL: No, I know.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: -- we are working together because Roxana Saberi spent a lot of time in Minnesota. She went to Concordia College in Moorhead, and the Fargo-Moorhead area is really one. There are just numerous people in our state, journalists that have worked side-by- side with her that love her, that miss her, that want her to come back.

And just your interview with Mr. Saberi, Andrea, I just -- showed his quiet pain that he is in, that his daughter just can't be made an international pawn with Iran, that we have to fix this, and we have to bring her home.

MS. MITCHELL: What do you think Iran is up to, and is there any way to guess here? The president has made an overture through Hillary Clinton at the Hague. We were expecting some kind of response. Perhaps what Ahmadinejad said today is positive news, one hopes.

But holding this American, this Iranian-American, and convicting her to eight years in prison is hardly a response that Iran would be making, should be making, to an overture from a new administration here in the U.S.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: No, it isn't. And we don't know how this all came about. We just know from her she was buying a bottle of wine, that she's been a reporter in Iran, that this -- she was gathering information for news reports, and she had a mockery of a trial, a one- day trial behind closed doors.

The only silver lining that we see right now, and I think her father has pointed this out, is that Ahmadinejad has said that she has a right to a fair appeal. As you know, there are cases all around the country like this where people are sentenced to inordinate long sentence, and then they are reduced or they are brought home. And so the hope is through diplomacy, and the overtures that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama are making through the Swiss and others, that we will be able to get something done here. Because, this just is a senseless result that she would be held in this jail for eight years, this American citizen.

MS. MITCHELL: Senator, I wanted to ask you about Republican criticism, some Republican criticism, of the president's performance over the weekend in Latin America.

Newt Gingrich, Senator Ensign and others have criticized him for being polite to Hugo Chavez, and saying that he was being "used," that he has weakened the United States. What is your impression of what's taken place here?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, I would agree with the Canadian leader, the conservative leader here, Harper, that, you know, this is what goes on at these kinds of meetings. There were 34 countries represented there. And President Obama simply shook the hand of the Venezuelan president, something that George Bush actually did.

So I do find it somewhat ironic that they're so focused on this. He has made very clear -- and I think the best example would probably be Cuba -- that instead of moving backwards, our country is moving forwards. And we are talking about reaching out to these countries slowly but surely.

And with Cuba, as you know, just lifting of the travel ban and talking about some telecommunications potential there so we can open up their country and allow their citizens to see what's going on around the world. I think these are good first steps, and they've been carefully done.

MS. MITCHELL: I had talked to Prime Minister Harper of Canada today on a conference call with other reporters. And I asked him about this, and he said, as a conservative -- as you've alluded to -- he said that he thought that the president had been -- President Obama had been very effective in his interactions. And that, in fact, it had advanced American values and American issues by letting other people listen to the U.S. side and by not having them get their back up.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Exactly. And I was just in China with Senator McCain and Senator Graham. And they're -- they were pleased that he had intervened in the dispute between the Chinese and the French over the treatment of Hong Kong. In Japan, they were pleased that he had shown such respect to their prime minister.

So I think you see the fact that he is reaching out across the country, President Obama -- just -- across the world -- just as said he -- as he said he would do, I think it is having an enormous impact. Again, we're not going to see the results immediately, but we want a situation where we're reaching out beyond our military might, which is incredibly important, but also with diplomacy, also with working with other parts of the world on issues of climate change and other things that we need to do. And I think the best way to do that is to establish those connections.

And, again, he is not selling the store here. He is talking about one step at a time, simply shaking hands and talking to people. And it's going to have to be a two-way street. And as the president said, it's going to be deeds more than words.

MS. MITCHELL: Quickly, before I let you go, there is a cloture vote that we heard was scheduled by Senator Reid at 5:30 today on Christopher Hill's nomination to be ambassador to Iraq. Is it your understand that you've got the 60 votes and that you can ram through this nomination? It's been help up by Senator Brownback.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, we are very hopeful. And I wouldn't call it "ramming through" because we have been waiting so long to get this done. I think the president deserves an up or down vote on his ambassador to Iraq. The military there, Odierno, and the defense secretary, Gates, have been waiting to get a civilian partner. He is a seasoned diplomat, and we need to get this done.

MS. MITCHELL: Okay. Thank you very much, Senator Klobuchar.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Andrea.

END.

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