MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Government Shutdown

Interview

Senator Klobuchar, thank you for being here.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: Well, thank you, Rachel.

MADDOW: I feel like the Republican rationale for shutting down the government was very clear at the beginning. They wanted to use shutting down the government as leverage for trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, trying to get rid of Obamacare. They are no longer trying to do that. Do you know what they`re doing now?

KLOBUCHAR: They really can`t give an answer. They keep pointing to these bills they had sent over last week which were clearly defeated by the Senate. The president has made clear that he would veto their bills. And now it is up to them.

And I don`t think it`s surprising. I was watching your first segment, and I was thinking maybe you could have Reese Witherspoon of "Legally Blonde" come and give a talk at the House. That might be nice to explain how she got that discharge petition through. I was just picturing her up there on the House floor.

But in any case, it`s no surprise that you now have over 20 House members publicly saying that they want to simply vote on the Senate bill, which as you`ve explained on the show before, is simply a six-week extension, no bells and whistles, no extraneous legislation, to simply allow us to negotiate on the bigger budget issues that we need to do.

And I don`t think they can explain that anymore, especially when many of their own members are coming out and saying let`s just vote on it. And certainly you see it, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, saying we already passed this. It`s time for you guys to get this done.

MADDOW: Senator Klobuchar, you are, throughout your time in public service, you have been known as somebody who has worked across the aisle. You are a not particularly partisan politician, and you never have been.I cannot get a lot of Republicans to come on this show, but I have had a few in the last few days, including Congressman Scott Rigell of Virginia, former Congressman Steve LaTourette who I just spoke with -- a lot of people who I think of as very thoughtful, reasonable Republicans who actually don`t want the government to be shut down.

But what they keep saying to me is -- well, the way we should end this is by negotiating on some policy points. And then the shutdown can end. Or then we can avoid the debt ceiling. Is that actually what this is now boiling down to, whether there should be a policy negotiation before the gun is taken away from the country`s head or before we can wait until after? Is that what it`s about now?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think first of all what we`re talking about here is six weeks so that we can try to eliminate the sequestration, replace it with a mix of spending cuts, revenue, some reform. There`s all kinds of possibilities here.

And I was glad to see that Speaker Boehner made very clear, Rachel, that he was not going to let the country default on its debt, that we were going to pay our bills. I thought that was a very good sign in the last 24 hours, that somehow they`ve realized that they`re going to have to get this done so that then we can have that policy debate. I think discussions always continue, but the fact that you have these Republicans coming out now and saying get this open, and I think you`ve seen the effects of this.

We`ve seen -- we just had a hearing in judiciary. Seventy percent of our civilian employees in intelligence are now furloughed. The head of the intelligence said, well, we`d put them back if we saw an imminent threat. And so then we hear about NIH, 72 percent of their employees.And I was thinking about the fact that they`re now deciding to fund certain agencies in the government. It`s like a game of whack-a-mole. Well, someone got mad about this, so we`ll fund that department.

MADDOW: Right.

KLOBUCHAR: Oh, there`s an antitrust suit that`s come up. Maybe we`ll fund a few antitrust lawyers.This is not how you fund the greatest nation in this world. This is
not how you fund the United States of America, this democracy that`s been the basis for so many democracies around the world.

And so I think they`re coming to their senses. I don`t think it`s going to happen tomorrow. I`m going to be on the Senate floor tomorrow waiting for it to happen. But I think it`s going to take a few more days. But we are somehow going to get a resolution to this and move forward and be able to resolve some of these major issues that we need to resolve.

MADDOW: Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, buckling down for yet another weekend at work. Thank you very much for your time tonight.

KLOBUCHAR: Very good.

MADDOW: Great to see you.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Rachel.

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