CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview with Lucy McBath

Interview

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BASH (voice-over): Lucy McBath vividly remembers having the talk with her teenage son Jordan after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed. REP. LUCY MCBATH (D-GA): I said: "Baby, you got to understand you are

a young black male. You have to be really careful, where you are, what you do, and don't get into any verbal confrontation with anyone. People will take out a gun, and they will shoot you."

And I remember Jordan said with that bravado: "Mom, that's not going to happen to me."

BASH: But, nine months later, that's exactly what happened to Jordan, also at 17. He was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station who was angry that Jordan and his friends were playing loud music.

Jordan's father called to tell her the gut-wrenching news.

MCBATH: "Jordan has been shot."

And just this primal wail came out with me. And I was like: "Where's Jordan?"

And I just started screaming. And Jordan's father said -- he told me: "Jordan is dead."

And I just -- I was just screaming, because I felt like, at that moment, that everything I had done to protect him, it wasn't good enough. It didn't matter because he was a young black male, and it was simply because of the color of his skin.

BASH: She redirected her pain into purpose, became active in the gun control group Moms Demand Action.

MCBATH: I started speaking out about Jordan's tragedy.

Any person that would allow me to speak or tell my story, I -- that's what I did.

BASH (on camera): A lot of people would get -- get under the covers, pull them over their head and never want to get out.

MCBATH: But that's not the way I was raised. I was raised that you fight to protect and care for the people that you believe in and that you love.

BASH (voice-over): She was raised by an activist father who chaired the Illinois NAACP in the 1960s and met with Lyndon Johnson regarding the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

MCBATH: I grew up watching my father give speeches, and all of the marches we participated in as children.

And I can remember, at night, as a child, a small child, my house was filled with people. And they were drinking and smoking and strategizing.

BASH (on camera): Filled with civil rights leaders trying to change America.

[09:55:01]

MCBATH: Yes. Yes. That's my background. That's my DNA.

BASH (voice-over): But McBath didn't follow that DNA for the first 30 years of her professional life. She was a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines.

MCBATH: Enough is enough.

BASH: After her son was killed in 2012, she got political through activism against gun violence, but didn't consider running for federal office until Valentine's Day 2018.

MCBATH: Parkland happened, and I was furious, because there again -- you know, we had Sandy Hook, and nothing was done.

And I thought, well, who's going to stand up for our children? Why are federal legislators even refusing, our state and local legislators? What are you afraid of?

BASH: She decided to make a longshot run for Congress.

MCBATH: And so I just said, well, I -- you know, you're not going to support me, that's OK. I'll do what I have to do, and I'll go to bed at night knowing that I'm standing up for our families.

BASH (on camera): And then you won.

MCBATH: And then we won in ruby-red Georgia. And I ran on a gun safety platform as my number one policy platform.

I believed that, as a survivor and as a person who's living this tragedy every single day of my life, that there's so many other people around the country like me that are crying out for legislation.

BASH (voice-over): McBath is a majority-maker, a House Democrat who turned her suburban Atlanta district blue and helped give Nancy Pelosi the speaker's gavel back in 2019.

Now in her second term, she's more realist than activist.

(on camera): There's a Senate Democratic majority, and, of course, a Democrat in the White House. Do you think it's going to get done now?

MCBATH: I will tell you, this is a long, long road.

BASH: That sounds like a no.

MCBATH: I won't say no.

The best opportunity that we have to evolve and put really good policy in place is right now, under this administration. But we're not going to get everything that we want. It does not happen overnight.

BASH (voice-over): McBath, a two-time breast cancer survivor who pushes hard for better women's health care, is in a competitive seat, and unknown, how Georgia's new, more restrictive voting law will play out.

MCBATH: Shame on the Republican Party for putting these kinds of pieces of legislation in place that deters people's ability to vote.

But I just truly believe that people are undeterred. And they know how important it is.

BASH: She wanted to take us to her son Jordan's grave site, where she comes often.

(on camera): What's the graduation from?

MCBATH: Kindergarten.

BASH (voice-over): Pictures on his headstone, snapshots of his short life. This is the place, she says, she feels closest to him.

MCBATH: I feel like I can -- I can talk to him out here. What I talk to him a lot about is how hard the work is.

And I said: I'm trying to do everything I was raising you to do. So I can't be a hypocrite.

BASH (on camera): I never thought of it that way, that you're living the life that you taught him to live.

MCBATH: I mean, all the things that I worry about for my district, for the country, for my family, it just what I was trying to teach him to do.

That is his legacy, even though I thought I was sowing the seed into him to live that out. His legacy is my legacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Thank you so much to Congresswoman McBath for sharing your story and Jordan's story.

Thank you for spending your Sunday morning with us.

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