CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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COOPER: When we left you last night, we just learned about how far one senior Justice Department official tried to go to help the former President overturn the election, essentially stage a coup. Also, how other officials went to stop him.

Also seen as CNN's Evan Perez reported last night, that this man, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, Jeffrey Clark, who you probably don't recognize succeeded, quote, "The course of history would have been changed if he had succeeded."

Well, today, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin told CNN that he wants his panel to question Mr. Clark.

Joining us, Senate Judiciary Committee member, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar, it is remarkable the details now that we've learned. We just mentioned your colleague, Judiciary Chairman Durbin wants to question this former Trump justice official, Jeffrey Clark, what questions do you think he should answer?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Well, you know, I remember Jeffrey Clark's name in one very big way and that was the reports at the time from "The New York Times" that Trump was actually trying to install him as the Attorney General, over the acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen for the purposes of him maintaining the lie when it came to the election.

So, what we want to know about now is what his role was when it came to election suppression, when it came to questioning the results, the final results of the election, and there is a lot of information out there about what he could have been doing with Georgia.

And I just step back from this. This isn't a campaign. This is the Justice Department. And in America, the President isn't King, the law is King. So, that's the first thing. He has an obligation to the law of the United States, not to Donald Trump, and that is the oath of office that he took.

And then the second piece of this is just exactly as you point out, what he did. And we are, by the way, trying to make sure this never happens again, with a bill that I have just introduced with Senator Warnock of Georgia to extend some of the protections so that we can't have states diving in and taking elected officials out, local election officials out, and putting themselves back in power to be able to -- whether it's counting the ballots or setting the rules of the election.

This is really scary stuff, Anderson.

COOPER: It's also scary. Just I mean, if Clark had, you know, gotten his way and the President -- the then President had gotten his way, there were despite the outcry that would have occurred, there were millions of Americans who were willing to back up this big a lie at the time, as we saw on the Capitol insurrection.

So, I mean, the idea that this could have actually resulted in the incredibly serious threat to our democracy, it is not farfetched.

KLOBUCHAR: Yes, and I like how you connect all these dots because the insurrection just didn't happen by itself. Donald Trump was leading up to that, since the Election Day on and calling people to join him in this big lie and calling people that day, of course, to march down the mall to the Capitol.

But what I'm most interested in right now, of course, is not only figuring out how this happened. We looked at what happened at the Capitol. The Select Committee in the House is actually looking at it in a deeper way, and that's really important to allow to go on.

But as that happens, I'm always looking at what's the next step and the next step is the over 400 bills that have been introduced around the country to limit people's right to vote, including ones that have passed like in the State of Georgia, which basically says you can't even vote on weekends during a runoff; you can't even register people to vote during a runoff. You can't give water -- non-partisan volunteers -- to people in line. You have to put your birthdate on an envelope in the inside envelope, because they know people can mess that up.

[20:20:29]

KLOBUCHAR: These are the kinds of bills that are passing, as you mentioned, in Texas, and around the country, and so this is all tied into what was going on before the election. And it's important to look back at what happened, but it's just as important to stop what's happening now.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, it's interesting, because, you know, I get direct messages on Instagram from people saying, well, why are you still talking about the former President? Just ignore him. What you just said is the reason that there are -- there is actually legislation happening now, which is based on and relies on the big lie.

This isn't just some guy in Mar-a-Lago in the -- you know, the -- you know, hanging out in the lobby of Mar-a-Lago talking to anyone who will listen about his stolen election allegations. They are making legislation based on it.

KLOBUCHAR: Exactly, and, you know, audits that aren't real in Arizona and the like. So, that's why you wonder why we are so focused on the For the People Bill that sets national Federal standards, saying you know what, you should be able to vote early, you should be able to vote in whatever way you can that is safe, like mailing in your ballot. There should be drop off boxes. There should be ways to vote early.

And that's why the bill is so popular at its core. It is firmly grounded in the Constitution that says that Congress can make or alter the laws for a federal election, and also, it is wildly popular with people because they don't want the mess of who is counting the ballot when and having some basic Federal standards really helps people and they liked the idea. COOPER: You know, Clark was drafting a letter, which was in support of

what the President's big lie particularly about Georgia. Is there any possible justification for such a high-level Justice Department official to draft such a letter?

KLOBUCHAR: No, and look at what former Attorney General Barr said himself. He said that there wasn't fraud in this election. The highest-ranking person in Homeland Security under President Trump who had oversight over the election said it was the safest election in American history.

Jeffrey Rosen, the Acting Attorney General, at the end, who Trump was allegedly trying to replace your guy, Jeffrey Clark -- he is not your guy, Anderson, but the guy we're talking about -- replace him with Jeffrey Clark. He also was trying to hold the line.

So, you saw all these people. And while I didn't agree with a lot of what they were doing, you saw attempts of them trying to hold up the rule of law over people like Jeffrey Clark. And that's why it is so dangerous because you can't have a President putting in basically, campaign style people in the Justice Department who aren't following the law.

COOPER: Yes, you were at the White House this evening when President Biden signed the bill you co-sponsored honoring the Capitol Police officers with the Congressional Gold Medal for their actions on January 6th.

Twenty-seven House Republicans opposed the bill. What do you say to some of your Republican colleagues in both chambers of Congress who are still trying to rewrite history and deny what happened that day and make it seem as though it was just a regular day with tourists coming to the Capitol?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, it was absolutely absurd that 27 of them in the House didn't support it. And the fact that they said it was, was because it had the word insurrection. I was really proud of the work that I did leading the bill with my friend, Senator Blunt, a Republican, and the two of us actually got every senator to support the bill.

The Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate, every one of them, and when I got out of the chamber after we passed it unanimously, the cops noticed. They said to me, this means so much that every single senator not only supporting us with a gold medal that will be forever displayed in the Smithsonian, so kids can ask their parents, what is this about? And they can explain what happened that day.

But also, that every single person agreed to the language that said that these were insurrectionists and that this was an insurrection. So, that was a big deal in the Senate and President Biden did a beautiful job today with Vice President Harris, as he called up the little kids of Billy Evans, an officer who had been killed months later when someone rammed their car into a barricade and pinned him down, and those little kids standing up there with the President giving him the pens as he signed the bill and the kids distributing them to the police and the Police Chiefs is something I'm never going to forget, Anderson.

COOPER: Before I let you go. I do want to ask about infrastructure. Majority Leader Schumer tonight was not committal on timing for the final passage of the bill. Where do things stand right now?

[20:25:03]

KLOBUCHAR: Well, I'm smiling because I'm standing right here, waiting. And I'm really proud of that bill. We've got strong bipartisan support. I've worked a lot on the broadband piece. It's going to be a game changer for our country, and we're going to get this done.

Right now, they have a package of amendments that we're trying to get approval on and that takes a while in the Senate, so we can begin the vote. But there's every reason to believe this bill will get done and signed into law.

Maybe it's going to be in the wee hours of the morning, one of these days, but it will get done and we're not going to go home until it gets done.

COOPER: Senator Amy Klobuchar, appreciate your time. Thank you.

KLOBUCHAR: OK, thank you.

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