NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript Interview with Roy Blunt
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
CHUCK TODD:
And joining me now is a member of the Senate Republican leadership team. He's chair of the Policy Committee. It's Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri. Senator Blunt, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Good to be with you, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
I want to start with, obviously, the Supreme Court nomination and the timing of a vote on confirmation. I just want to -- I know you have said that you think this can be done before Election Day. The question I have for you is, should it be done before Election Day? And if so, why?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, what I said, what I've said was this needs to take all the time it needs to take, but it doesn't need to take more time than it needs to take. I've talked to Senator Graham about this, trying to make arrangements as the chairman of the Rules Committee for room and space and security and other things. And he's laid out a plan that I think meets all the standards of past hearings and could be done before Election Day. If for some reason it's not done, we'll do it after Election Day, but I think we're likely to get this done sometime in the month of October.
CHUCK TODD:
You have no, you have no qualms about doing this before the election? You've seen polling is pretty overwhelming on this issue. A large majority of the American public do not believe this president should pick this, this president before the election should make this pick, it should be whoever wins the election. That is not an unreasonable thing for the American public to think, is it not?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, it may not be unreasonable, but the Constitution sets up two standards to get on the court. One is the president has to make a nomination and two is that you have to have a Senate that will accept that nomination and agree with that nomination. And there have been 15 times in the history of the country when there's been a justice, a vacancy in an election year. And when the president and the Senate were in political agreement, they almost always fulfilled the two obligations. And if they weren't, they almost never did. So, what would the deadline be? The president -- I said when President Obama made his nomination that not only would he want to make a nomination, but he was probably constitutionally obligated to make an obligation. And the other half of that necessary formula just wasn't there to get that done, and now it is there.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you regret the hypocritical argument you guys made four years ago, creating this, this sort of standard out of thin air, and then backtracking on it four years later. And I know you guys came up with these footnotes that says it depends on who controls the Senate -- Senator Blunt, nobody made those footnotes in 2016. It was crystal clear to the American public what your views are. Are you concerned that the party looks like a bunch of hypocrites, four weeks before the election on this issue?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, I don't know. The voters will have to look at that and decide. I said a number of times in 2016 exactly what I just said to you -- that the two things had to be in agreement for this to happen and when they weren't in agreement, then voters get a chance to weigh in and give as much direction as they want to. And in 2016, they retained a Republican majority in the Senate. In 2018, after two Supreme Court nominations, they increased that majority in the Senate. And I don't know that we can make this decision or should -- I know we shouldn't make it based on the politics of it, but what our job is and if we're in agreement in getting that job done.
CHUCK TODD:
The president has made election disputes one of the rationales for why this, why she needs to be rushed onto the court. Does this not put her in a position to look like the court's being politicized? Again, this -- the way this is being orchestrated, the way the president's talking, it's it's -- could end up delegitimizing the court in the eyes of the public. Are you concerned about that -- particularly the president's comments?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, I don't know that's a reason for her to go on the court. I think there are lots of reasons for her to go on the court. I'm eager to vote for her. She was on my shortlist the last time of people that I would hope the president might have nominated and I'm eager for that to happen. I am concerned, Chuck, about this idea that somehow the election won't be fair. I think the election may be complicated. I talked about this on the floor of the Senate last week. I said the best place to cast a ballot is at the polling place on Election Day. You have all the information. You know, if you voted two weeks ago, you wouldn't have been thinking about this particular circumstance right now, but you have all the information, you vote, you watch your ballot go into a counting system that you're pretty sure of. Then I said, but if you don't want to do it that way, you should take advantage of all the other opportunities to vote, but we really should remember the other opportunities are a little more complicated, and there are always questions about absentee ballots. Did you sign the envelope? Is the postmark correct? I think we're going to see litigation, and to some extent, the Electoral College will help us once again, and it will take most of the states off the table election night. And maybe a handful of states, we're going to have a fight about when ballots came in and whether they should be counted and whether the signature was necessary. And I'm eager for the country to work its way through that. If the president's reelected, he'll be sworn in on January the 20th. If Vice President Biden's elected, he'll be sworn in on January the 20th. At this point, I'm chairing the inauguration, and I look forward to seeing that happen.
CHUCK TODD:
Look, you seem to indicate that you believe the voting's going to be fair. You said it's going to be complicated. The president does not say those things. Are you concerned he has undermined the legitimacy of the election, in the eyes of some?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, I hope not. And I've actually passed my views on this along to the White House. I think we need to encourage our voters to vote, just like the Democrats need to encourage their voters to vote. But voters should also understand that if you make the voting by mail or absentee ballot choice, it's just a little harder than going to the polling place on Election Day, and always some percentage of those ballots are argued about if any election is close, whether it's city council --
CHUCK TODD:
Okay.
SEN. ROY BLUNT
-- or the electoral vote in a state.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator, I want to actually go back to a couple of issues that may be impacted due to the Supreme Court. And that is the issue of abortion rights and the issue of the Affordable Care Act. Is it your hope that if Justice Barrett -- if Judge Barrett becomes Justice Barrett -- that it leads to the overturn, the ruling of the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
No, that's not my hope. My hope is that on any case she deals with, she looks at the facts of the case, applies it to the Constitution and the law, and then makes a decision. And I don't know how you can predict any of that in advance.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you want to see the Affordable Care Act ruled unconstitutional and totally thrown out?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, if it is thrown out, it will be months from the time the court hears it. We'll have time to think about that argument and to do something about it. I think a lot of the Affordable Care Act is now baked into the system. The one provision in the Affordable Care Act that I authored, so we filed about nine or ten bills, was keeping people on insurance, their parents' insurance until they're 26 -- sure don't see that being reversed. I don't see preexisting conditions being protected being reversed. No matter what the court decides, a lot of that discussion has already been had. The American people have accepted that as a basic part of the ongoing system. And we'll have that happen.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, but if they throw out the law, it doesn't, it doesn't matter, you guys have to pass a new one. Very quickly, you guys are rushing to confirm a Supreme Court justice. Where's the urgency on virus relief?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Well, let me say on if they throw out the law -- a November hearing doesn't throw out the law. They won't do that until sometime in the late, late spring or early summer before you even know what their ruling is. And we'll have time to deal with this. On virus relief, I think we're doing some really innovative things. There are going to be as many tests produced in October as people have taken up until now -- about a million and a half -- 150 million tests produced in October, more testing, vaccines that work. We're --
CHUCK TODD:
But no virus relief --
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
-- moving forward --
CHUCK TODD:
-- from Congress?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
--with vaccines.
CHUCK TODD:
But no relief from Congress?
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Oh, on COVID, I think, I think that is a huge mistake, Chuck. I think to get back to school, to get back to work, to get back to better health, we need a bill. We're in very near agreement on all the COVID things that matter. What we're not in agreement on is about $1 trillion worth of other things.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator Roy Blunt, Republican from Missouri, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us, sir. Thank you.
SEN. ROY BLUNT:
Great to be with you. Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source