Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) exchange with Brett Kavanaugh over claims of his excessive drinking was one of the most-talked-about moments from the judge’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In an extensive interview with FRONTLINE, Klobuchar—who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination—shares what she first thought when Kavanaugh asked her if she had ever blacked out: “My first reaction was, boy, if I had done that in your courtroom, I thought this in my head, you would kick me out.”
Then, the Senate Judiciary Committee member shares why she ultimately chose a different response—citing growing up as the child of an alcoholic, and “remembering those moments where you’ve got to take the keys away when they’re driving. I thought, I’m going to take the keys away here; I’m not going to go with you in that car.”
In this interview conducted by FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk on December 12, 2018 during the making of “Supreme Revenge,” the former prosecutor also speaks out on the Republican response to the death of Justice Scalia, the politicization of the nomination process, and why she says Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony was “a larger-than-life moment.”
This extended interview is part of the FRONTLINE Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind FRONTLINE’s reporting. View a version of this interview that includes an interactive text transcript, and explore dozens of other interviews shedding light on three decades of Supreme Court confirmation battles, on FRONTLINE’s website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview-collection/supreme-revenge/
Watch the full documentary, Supreme Revenge, here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/
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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, The John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.
