Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joined Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night for what she thought “would be a nice holiday interview with [her] tree” but “here we are” with 20 pardons and a demand to amend the COVID relief bill.
Klobuchar did not spare words for Trump.
Said Klobuchar: “I thought this would be a nice holiday interview with my tree and here we are. Hearing these stories, he is literally trying to burn the house of justice down on his way out the door. He's saying ‘screw you' to the FBI, ‘screw you' to the line prosecutors. These are the hardest cases to make against sitting Congressmen. They did this, they put them away for good reason. … And all these cases are so disparate, they don't really have an organizing principle. But what they have in common is what Mike Schmidt pointed out earlier in your show and that is that 88% of these pardons are somehow related to Donald Trump or his political goals. And it is corruption through and through.”
“That's what's unbelievable about this,” Klobuchar continued. “As we sit here today knowing that the Secretary of State has been very clear that Russia engaged in a major, major hack of our country just now, and [Trump] is literally sending the message, this president, by pardoning these people that were involved and, of course, dozens of people were indicted in that Russian investigation involving our election. He's sending the message: ‘Go at it.'”
Klobuchar was not happy with Trump's demands to amend the long-negotiated COVID stimulus bill either.
Said Klobuchar to Rachel Maddow: “This is an attack on every American. People are struggling to get by right now, out of work, whose unemployment… the unemployment is basically going to end the day after Christmas if this doesn't pass. People who are out of work, people who need the help of … vaccine distribution is in this. These vaccines are not going to just parachute into a small town in the middle of Minnesota. We need the help for the states to get the vaccines out and he is literally undermining our entire effort on testing and vaccine distribution.”
“This was a hard fought negotiation,” Klobuchar added. “Of course, you're right, Democrats were pushing for more funds for the individual payments. And he knows very well we're reaching the end here with the unemployment, with the small businesses can't take it anymore. … It is the second biggest stimulus in the history of America. And for him to turn this down. Obviously we have the votes to override his veto but he should not be doing this right now when his own Treasury Secretary was involved in the negotiations from beginning to end. He is literally trying to burn this country down on his way out.”
