-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We are talking to Senator Amy Klobuchar.
It did seem as though one of the things we lost to some degree
in the rush to fill this vacancy was sort of lacked the time
to properly reflect back on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life.
I assume, as a fellow lawyer, she meant a great deal to you
as a trail blazer in this field.
-She did.
I mean, she was someone that never gave up, you know.
She was told women shouldn't go to law school.
She graduates one in her class.
She is told that she shouldn't argue cases
in front of a Supreme Court
because a man could get better decisions,
and she won five out of six.
She ends up on the court as an icon into her 80s
with her own hashtag, Notorious RBG.
And I was reminded of this.
My daughter actually went with me to a party,
and Justice Ginsburg was there.
And we took a picture of the three of us and she came to me.
My daughter was like -- her first year in college.
Comes to me afterward, she goes,
"Mom, I got to put this on my Facebook.
Notorious RBG is so cool.
But I hope you don't mind. I cut you out, Mom."
[ Laughter ]
"I cut you out of the photo 'cause she's just so cool."
But to think -- -Here is the photo right there.
-Oh, there it is.
-And this is how it looked on social media.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, that's about it.
-[ Laughs ]
-That's exactly right, and they have matching glasses.
But I think the other thing about the Justice is,
which I said at the hearing because I think people
who are dispirited by what the Republicans are doing right now
have to remember that when Justice Ginsburg
wrote her dissents, and the rabbi said this
at her memorial service in the Capitol,
they weren't cries of defeat.
They were blueprints for the future,
and that's what this election is and that's what she stood for.
-I want to talk about election night,
and you and some of your colleagues put out a report,
basically preparing people for how and what might happen
on election night that we might not have a result early on,
that we, obviously, have a president
who is already trying to sow
a level of distrust in the results.
If you could just sort of summarize for us,
what do you think is the best course of action
for people watching the returns coming in?
-Mm-hmm. Well, the first thing, I'm going to be in Minnesota,
and so he has specifically said in my state
he's never coming back there if he loses, so I'm just waiting
for that moment because we're winning in Minnesota.
And then the second thing, that night is people have to
understand that we're not going to know the results
in some states, maybe including in some of the Senate races.
Every state's different.
It's not just when their ballots are due.
It's also how they count them.
So, you'll have states like Florida,
which actually will count them early,
and we may know right away.
But then you'll have -- unless it's really close --
then you'll have states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
that are starting to count the day the ballots come in,
and so you're going to have differences in each state.
And I think our message -- and Bernie's worked on this
with me a lot -- our message is it's okay
that we don't know every state.
We want to make sure that every single vote is counted
and we don't want Donald Trump to be
making some claim just because a bunch of mail-in ballots
haven't been counted yet because that's the way the law works
that there is something wrong with that.
So we just want people to be ready for that.
-Do you have a personal plan for how you are going to watch
and consume media on election night?
-Probably I'll be in my home state, as I said, at my house,
you know, with my own little signs,
whatever, just like everyone else.
We may have a small gathering in Minnesota,
but I think a lot of this for me
is holding Donald Trump to his words.
He said he's never coming back again, so I'm going to have to
get some swag for him or some kind of going-away gift.
-Yeah. -And I think that
the whole thing for people to remember is
we can think of that night, but if you're just making that plan
and you don't have a plan to vote, a big mistake
because I was on a call with a bunch of kids and I said,
"How many of you voted?"
and like 10 of them raised their hand.
I go, "Okay, get off the Zoom call right now."
Like, just vote.
That's what people have to do.
-You mentioned COVID and how it affected your family personally,
and the fact that there is not right now any reason to believe
there's going to be any more relief before the election.
Do you feel as though your colleagues across the aisle
in the Senate have ignored how this is affecting
the American people right now?
-Yes. I think it's part of their denial.
The leader of their party, you know, got COVID,
and walked into the White House and defiantly took off his mask
while he was still contagious,
and to me that photo says it all.
And then they have had a bill on their desk --
it's called the Heroes Act and different versions of it
that Speaker Pelosi has passed --
that has the adequate money for testing,
that has the help for state and local, and mostly,
this last version that passed the House, restaurants,
Stages -- that's a bill that I lead.
It's a bipartisan bill that actually helps
some of our smaller theaters and music stages,
so important in every town in America, not just New York City,
small towns and mid-sized towns like Moorhead, Minnesota.
And so they have literally let all of those bills sit,
and all they've offered us is just basically things
that wouldn't really get our economy to where it should be.
So I have no idea why they have chosen to disregard
the needs of America while moms are balancing their kids
on their knees and their laptop on their desk,
and seniors are isolated.
It's unbelievable to me, but I guess we'll have to wait and see
what the suburban women say because,
Seth, I was watching that earlier on your show.
I grew up in the suburbs, okay?
I know what a lot of suburban women think right now.
-Yes. -This is just not right.
It's not normal, and they want a president which,
as you point out, they can wake up every morning and not worry
that they have to turn off the TV because they don't want
their kids to watch what the president's saying.
-Well, it's certainly going to be
an interesting couple of weeks or so.
Thank you so much for making the time for us,
and we will talk to you soon.
-Okay. It was great to be on. Thank you.