CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with House Majority Whip James Clyburn

Interview

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COOPER: Well, the White House has yet to offer credible evidence that what's happening at the border is an emergency, let alone that it's a very special kind of emergency, the kind with no urgency, that somehow demands no immediate action, none, perhaps beyond threatening the livelihood of people who bore the brunt of it the last time around again.

More now on the congressional panel that President Trump is depending on to get him out of this mess but that he's also threatening to bypass if negotiators don't reach agreements that he likes. Late today, I spoke with a Democrat whose job revolves around knowing where his members stand, House Majority Whip James Clyburn.

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COOPER: Congressman Clyburn, the president puts the chance of negotiators being able to reach a deal at less than 50/50. Do you agree with those odds?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC), MAJORITY WHIP: I think they're much better than that. I think we have two sides who realized that this is something that must get -- realize that this is something that must get done. We have to secure or border. We cannot do it with Homeland Security not being funded.

We have to restore the faith and trust of the American people in the governmental process. And so, we're going to work on doing that over the next three weeks and I hope the chances of getting the deal done are much better than 50/50.

COOPER: What role would you see any new wall or fencing playing in a deal?

CLYBURN: Oh, I think it depends on how you define a wall. I have said that I'm all for a smart wall, a wall using technology, using drones and scanners and X-ray equipment that will make the wall too high to get over, to wide to get around, too deep to borough under. That is a smart wall.

I was glad to see the president on Friday use that term when he talked about a wall.

So, it says to me that we can reach common ground. The language is already getting a bit common. And so I think that we can get to where we need to be. COOPER: Even if the bipartisan panel does reach a deal, there is no

guarantee it will be something the president will support, should negotiators focus on a deal that the president will sign rather than something that could simply pass both chambers?

CLYBURN: Well, I think that we ought to settle on what we can do in both chambers. We are a separate and equal branch of government, and I don't think that we are subservient in any way to the executive branch.

[20:25:09] We are coequal partners.

So let's come together here, House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, and decide on what we think will work best. Hopefully, as deliberate over numbers, that is on finances, they will consult with experts as to how best to spend that money. And I would hope that they will have the benefit of all of that in their deliberations and maybe then in sitting down with representatives of the president, they can convince them of why it is they should sign on to whatever the agreement is between these two bodies.

COOPER: You know, the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says Democrats have funded border barriers in the past and refusing this time because President Trump is asking for it. What about that, because Democrats have in fact funded border barriers in the past, what's different about it this time? Isn't it possible that there are some areas that could use fencing or some kind of barrier?

CLYBURN: Well, that may be, and that's why we want to consult with experts. I think that what the Democrats got turned off is the president saying we're going to build a wall from sea to shining sea. We're going to have a big beautiful 30 foot high wall. That's the kind of stuff of which the Berlin wall was made. We know that does not work.

Walls, historically, have not worked for what they are intended to work. We believe that using technology that's available to us now can build a secure wall of technology scanners, drones and as I said, x- ray equipment, that will allow us to check every car coming through the ports of entry.

Now, you know, the drugs that the president keeps talking about I understand 78 percent of that comes through the ports of entry. They don't come over fences.

COOPER: Yes --

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CLYBURN: Yes.

And so how do we know, you can't do that by building a wall, you got to have the technology that will allow you to detect that stuff if it's in an automobile or in some other kind of motorized vehicle.

COOPER: The Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said that any final bill to fund the department of homeland security should include a provision to end government shut downs for good, automatically renew funding if Congress and the White House can't come to a deal. Is that something you would support?

CLYBURN: Absolutely. We are the only government I know anywhere that this shut down the government over policy arguments. That, to me, is a bit sophomoric, if not ancient. We just really need to get that out of our system.

Sure, we can disagree over policy. But we ought not put families at the risk because of policy disagreements. A lot of these families, we have already read that over $3 billion will never come back into this economy that was lost during this shut down. We ought not do that to families.

What do we know about the health of people who were not able to get their medications because they did not have income to purchase them? This kind of stuff we ought not to lie (ph). What has happened to people's credit who's now at risk because they were not able to pay their mortgages and other household bills on time.

COOPER: Yes.

CLYBURN: That kind of stuff cannot be recouped. So, the government ought not be doing that, and I would think that the president would have much more compassion going forward than he demonstrated in the pass.

COOPER: Congressman Clyburn, I appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.

CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.

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