MSNBC "Hardball With Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

TODD: Pete Williams, thanks very much for reporting. I know we‘ll see you on many other programs in the next 24 hours.

Joining us now by phone is Minnesota‘s—well, she was the senior senator and the junior senator. Now I think she is just the senior senator, Amy Klobuchar. Senator Klobuchar, obviously, we‘ve seen a statement. You‘re very relieved. Explain what life has been like, having to be one senator dealing—doing the constituency service of two.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA (via telephone): Well, Chuck, first of all, I think Matthews picked quite a day to be out of the country, huh?

(LAUGHTER)

KLOBUCHAR: Good to talk with you. I‘m greeting you from the back room of the Blue Water Cafe in Grand Maray (ph), Minnesota. And I have to say that this has been quite a time, six months, our staff doing double time with no extra resources. I‘m incredibly proud of the work that they did keeping up with everything while the economy was so hard. And I was really—I thought that Senator Coleman handled it with a lot of grace today when he thanked our staff for what they‘d done.

And you know, he had a right. It may have been a difficult path, but he did have a right to pursue a federal appeal, and he chose to do what was right to Minnesota. And of course...

TODD: One of my—go ahead. Sorry.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, my thoughts, of course, are with Al Franken. I talked to both of them today. One little-known fact that you would love is that Franny (ph) Franken had her bag packed—her bag was packed next to her bed for weeks and months, waiting for this moment in case they had a quick rush to Washington, just like an expectant mother...

TODD: Just like a child, yes.

KLOBUCHAR: ... going to the hospital with her toothbrush there. So I know that they‘re very happy about this. And we will have two senators and at a very critical time in our country‘s history.

TODD: Senator, one of the things that I was—that I think a lot of us outside of Minnesota have been surprised about is there actually didn‘t seem to be a lot of acrimony on the ground there in Minnesota. So are residents there—do they just have a lot of patience over this? They were OK with how long this went on, or are they a little upset?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, you know, Chuck, when you‘ve got a six-month winter, you learn to be very patient and people have been patient about this. They were tired of it, but they have been patient. And part of it is that our court process—as Pete was talking about and you were talking about—our election process is renowned. This was an incredibly close election. No state would have been able to deal with it quickly, 300 votes separating 2.9 million cast. It was a very hard thing, and it was done in a bipartisan way, the canvassing board.

So overall, people thought the process was fair. And while they grumbled about the fact that it took longer than the trial of the century, the Lindbergh (ph) baby kidnapping trial, they still knew that it was fair, and I think it made it a lot easier for people to tolerate the wait.

TODD: Very quickly, when is Senator Franken going to get sworn in, as far as you know?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I‘m hoping it will be next week. We have a lot going on in the Senate. I know he‘s ready to go on health care. That‘s something he cares a lot about, and being up here in little towns around northern Minnesota, people really want to get something done. So I‘m hopeful that it will be next week.

TODD: Fair enough. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Chuck.

TODD: Enjoy Minnesota during this recess.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, enjoy filling in this week for Chris.

TODD: Thanks.

KLOBUCHAR: OK. ‘Bye.

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