Transcript: Sen. Amy Klobuchar on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," June 8, 2025

The following is the transcript of an interview with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 8, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who joins us from Minneapolis. Good morning, Senator, you--

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR: Thanks, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --you heard Secretary Noem say, what's happening in LA and the decisions being made about it at the federal level have to do with what happened in 2020 in Minneapolis, and what she called the missteps of your governor, Tim Walz, at the time. You lived through all that. What would you advise Governor Newsom to do out in California now?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Every governor is going to make their own decisions based on the situation. In this case, Governor Newsom has made clear that he wants local law enforcement protecting the citizens, and he has asked the president not to inflame the situation. In Governor Walz' case, as you pointed out in the earlier segment, he did bring in the National Guard. I would also point out that on January 6, I was there as well, and what I saw there was, the president didn't bring in the National Guard when over 100 police officers were injured or hurt or worse. And so I think it is quite, let's say, ironic, probably doesn't fit this situation, when you have got administration officials talking about protecting police officers after what happened on January 6. And when I look at what's going on in California or across the country, of course, as a congressman said, you want to get dangerous criminals out of our midst, out of our communities, but when you look at where the American people are, they want to make sure you follow the law and that there's due process, and you don't want to inflame things by threatening to bring in the Marines, or deporting people based on a mistake.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we're going to take a quick break and continue this conversation. You have such a key role in oversight of law enforcement on the Judiciary. We'll be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to "Face the Nation." We return now to our conversation with Senator Klobuchar. Senator, it seems that the president's use of the National Guard as he's federalizing them, is somewhat novel. It's the first time since 1965 a president has activated a state's National Guard without a request from the governor, that's according to the Brennan Center for Justice. What concerns do you have about going in this direction? It's about 60 days that have been authorized in the proclamation he signed last night.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: My concern, of course, is that this inflames a situation, and that he is hell bent on inflaming the situation. Individual governors look at their states and make decisions, but in this case, the president, time and time again, has shown this willingness to, one, violate the laws we've seen across the country in many different situations outside of the immigration context, and two, inflamed situations. So what do I think he should be doing right now? Who do I think he should be bringing in? I think he should be bringing in economists to talk to him right now about what's happening with the debt and with his big, beautiful, betrayal of the middle class, to be talking to him about what's going on with the tariffs and how they are hurting small businesses. I think he should be bringing in the people that I talk to every day, regular people, farmers whose markets are drying up, people who are worried about their moms or their grandmas getting kicked out of their assisted living because of his Medicaid cuts. When Josh Hawley calls this morally bereft, that it's immoral to make these Medicaid cuts, and when Elon Musk comes in and says that this is a disgusting abomination, this bill, and when it is now triggering, get this, Medicare cuts, something that hasn't been discussed yet, because it adds so much to the deficit that rural hospitals are going to get cut, I think that's who he should be listening to right now. Instead of his constant effort for shock and awe and trying to distract people what they care about most, which is the economy and their family situation. we're going

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will- we're going to talk about some of those very issues with Kevin Hassett, one of the president's top economic advisers shortly, including that idea of Medicare being touched, which is- is being floated, but we- we haven't heard from the administration on in detail, but- but the president's putting immigration front and center here. We see in our polling that- at least before what happened in LA, that this was broadly supported. 54% of Americans like his deportation policies. I'm- I'm worried- I'm wondering how much you worry that this puts Democrats on the back foot, that you are put in the position of defending someone like Abrego Garcia, who was just brought back to the United States from El Salvador and is now being charged by the Justice Department on these claims that he was involved somehow in human trafficking. This is that Maryland man who was, according to the Justice Department, wrongly sent to a prison in El Salvador on suspicion of being a member of a gang, which his family denied.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: So, Democrats believe in public safety. As a former prosecutor, it's been a lot of my life work, working with law enforcement. And that means you don't inflame things and make it worse, and that is that you make sure that violent criminals aren't in our midst. But even when you look at your own poll that just came out this morning, I- a strong majority of people believe that people should at least have- follow the rule of law and have due process, so people aren't mistakenly deported. When I look at the Abrego Garcia case, I see two things. The first is that- that you have to follow the law. The second is, that charges will be dealt with in the justice system. That's how this works. And of course, they should have done that at the get go, and not wrongfully deported him, and handled the charges in our country. But in the end, to me, this is about the rule of law and enforcing the laws. And again, when I look at your polling, 70% of the people said that while they- a number of them will support deporting violent criminals. I support that, okay? But 70% of them said that these policies either don't help with the economy or they weaken the economy. They are not there. They want this president. They voted for him, a bunch of them in the middle, who, in my state, also voted for me. They want him to see bring down costs. They don't want him to be kicking old people out of assisted living or cut the food assistance for veterans. They want him to be working on things that help them in their daily lives. That's what also comes out in your polling numbers.

MARGARET BRENNAN: As you know, Republicans say they're not cutting Medicaid, they're making it more efficient, but- but we will talk to Kevin Hassett about some of the specifics of what you just raised there. In our poll, though, our- it also shows among- among those polled that congressional Democrats are overwhelmingly seen as ineffective in challenging Trump. 71% of Democrats say their leaders are ineffective. You are in Democratic leadership. Why are they wrong?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: So when you look at what's happening here, Trump is doing some really bad things to people, right? Small businesses are closing down. We- the economy has retracted in the first quarter. And when I get out there talking to Independents, Republicans or Democrats are basically saying the same thing. They're really scared of what's happening right now to their families, and they want to see leadership. So we cannot be the party of the status quo, that is for certain. And I'm actually really excited about our new candidates that are going to be running in the midterms. The recruiting is going on. And when you look at the actual facts, the actual numbers, look over at my neighbors over in Wisconsin for the Supreme Court race, where ten Trump counties were flipped from red to blue, because people have had it with this. Or look at some of the legislative races around the country, Margaret. Our constituents are standing up, and we are by their side, whether they are Democrats, moderate Republicans, or Independents. They are showing up at rallies. They are voting. That's the number one most important thing. Democratic attorney generals are bringing cases in court that the public supports. They don't want to see veterinarians eliminated- eliminated from the USDA, or, they don't want to see funding frozen for cancer trials. And then you look at Congress. We are holding them accountable with votes. All we need is four Republicans to stand up against what Josh Hawley calls immoral Medicaid cuts, just four of them. All we need is four Republicans to stand up against these- food assistance that throws millions of people, veterans, seniors, kids, 40% of the people that get food assistance are kids. To stand up against shifting money over to the state, so Pennsylvania would suddenly get- would suddenly get a huge amount, millions of dollars shifted over to them, or over in North Carolina, where you've seen 500, over 500 million shifted. People need to stand up. The Republicans need to stand up. To me, that's leadership, not defending the status quo for our party, but moving forward with a forward thinking agenda and a new energy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Understand, Senator Klobuchar, thank you for your time today. We'll be right back.