CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript Interview with James Clyburn
Interview
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And OUTFRONT now is the third highest ranking Democrat in the House, James Clyburn.
Let me just ask you, Congressman, this is a really important topic, whatever people may think about government debt and the role of government. Right now, there are a lot of people in this country in an incredible amount of pain, and economic relief is needed if we are to have a much more serious economic depression. So, the president now says he wants a large-scale bill -- I'm sorry -- is interested one, after two days ago he said, no way, I'm done with it.
So, do you think this is negotiable at this point, that you can actually negotiate with him?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, I would certainly hope so.
Well, thank you very much for having me.
You know, the president seems to judge everything in this country economically based upon what happens on Wall Street.
Now, the reason he jumped back into the fray is because after he made his statement, cutting off all negotiations, Wall Street started to tank. And then he came back into the discussion. And I think somebody in the White House must be informing him that there are a few other streets in America where people live, where people play, where people work, outside of Wall Street.
[19:35:11]
And so, I would hope that he would take into account there are so many things on Main Street and side street, whatever, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, if you please, people's lives are at stake. Their livelihoods are under threat. Their health is deteriorating. We have got to do something and do it quickly. And I would hope this
president would stop jerking people around and get serious about being president of this country.
He seems to feel that he's involved in some kind of a game or a talk radio or TV program.
BURNETT: So there's the stimulus that obviously you're talking about the urgency of that. On top of that, the speaker, who obviously is involved in those discussions, is introducing a bill that would establish a commission to determine if the president is able to do his job.
So this is about the 25th Amendment, right, in which the vice president and the cabinet would transfer power to the vice president, because if the president is unfit basically.
So, we're just 26 days away from Election Day. Do you think this is good to be doing this right now?
CLYBURN: Well, you know, this is not a new bill. Jamie Raskin has had this bill around for a while, and I'm assuming it's the same bill.
BURNETT: Yes, it is.
CLYBURN: -- that they're going to be reintroducing.
At any rate, I think the president is displaying some very erratic behavior. And I think that the American people are beginning to become very concerned about this. And so, I think that it is good for the president or at least the people in the White House, most especially the chief of staff, to realize that he is not going to be allowed to jerk the country around and to do what seemed to be whatever willy- nilly may come to this president's head. So this may be the kind of attention getter that we need.
BURNETT: So in an interview today, the president came out and said some things about the vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which were not really about her performance at all in the sense of they were, you know, just sort of deeply personal. Here is what he said.
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TRUMP: She was terrible. She was -- I don't think you could get worse, and totally unlikable. And she is. She's a communist. And this monster that was on stage with Mike Pence.
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BURNETT: What's your reaction to that, a monster that was on stage?
CLYBURN: We'll deal first with the communist thing. You know, I was born and raised in an old town of Sumter. Mary McLeod Bethune was in -- was born in that county, just ten miles from where I grew up. My mother made me learn everything in the world about Mary McLeod Bethune. She's (AUDIO GAP) the greatest woman who ever lived. Well, Mary McLeod Bethune, the state of Florida is about to bring her
statue up and replace a Confederate statue in the capitol with the statue of Mary McLeod Bethune. Her portrait is up in the statehouse. I had a little something to do with putting that portrait in the statehouse here.
She was called a communist every day on the floor of the House of Representatives here in South Carolina when we're trying to get the legislation passed. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a communist. Now we've got things all over, even a holiday named after him.
Every time a black man or woman stand up to be counted in this country, there's some buffoons running around calling them as (ph) communist. I've been called a communist for sitting in trying to integrate a lunch counter. This is the kind of foolishness.
And then I see a member of the house from North Carolina saying that the only reason she was picked is because of her race. These kinds of racist tropes have got to stop, and the American people have it in their possession, with their votes, to stop this foolishness.
This country is teetering on a disaster. And I would hope people will wake up and really do what's necessary to put this country back on track. This president and his entire administration ought to really be removed from office and do so quickly.
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BURNETT: Congressman Clyburn, thank you very much for your time tonight, sir.
CLYBURN: Thank you.
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