CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Interview with James Clyburn

Interview

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BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina.

And I appreciate your time, Congressman. I'm glad to see you, and I'm sorry it's under the circumstances. What do you make of the president's attempt to cover himself for the when the looting starts, the shooting starts?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you so much for having me, Erin.

The president knows exactly what he's saying. He knows what he's doing. He is developed some expertise in inciting people. So, I don't accept service upon his statement at all.

BURNETT: So, I want to just make sure our viewers know here. Obviously, there is a blatant implication of when people are looting, you're going to start shooting them, and then there is the history. It appears to have originated in 1967, he said he's heard it many, many times, although he says he doesn't know where it came from.

It was a comment made by the then-Miami police chief, Walter Headley, during a press conference. He announced a campaign against crime that included using dogs, and shotguns, to police majority black neighborhoods. And according to "New York Times" account of that press conference, Headley also said, we don't mind being accused of police brutality.

And then, there are these pictures from 1968, according to a "Miami Herald" report at the time, he repeated the comment, when violence erupted in a predominantly black neighborhood during the 1968 Republican National Convention, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

That is who the president was quoting. Trump says he did not know about this history, and most people have heard it for a long time, and did not know this link.

Do you buy that?

CLYBURN: No, I don't. The fact of the matter is, we all know that crimes like this, and they are, this is criminal behavior against property, when you start taking lives because of a property crime, you take us back to a place in our history that gave rise to all of this. It may not have had all of the cute phrases, like you just mentioned, but we all know what happened to people of color when they were accused of property crimes. And that's what's going on here.

And most of us know that the background, the history, and this president knows the background and the history. So much of what he says is coded. And he means to send a signal to a certain element that he calls his base. There are many people within that base who are not good people to say the least.

O'DONNELL: So, the president went to the Rose Garden today, he addressed the world. He did not mention George Floyd or Minneapolis, but later this afternoon, when he did address Floyd, he said he has spoken to his family, and that he, President Trump, is calling for the DOJ to investigate Floyd's death.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have asked that the Department of Justice expedite the federal investigation into his death, and do it immediately, do it as quickly as absolutely possible. I spoke to members of the family. Terrific people. And we'll be reporting as time goes by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Are you confident that the Department of Justice will do a far and full investigation?

CLYBURN: Absolutely not. The head of the Department of Justice is the attorney general. And we've watched the attorney general, ever since he's been in office, in fact, we also watched him before he got out on office, as he wrote those letters, presented himself as being this president's Cohn. So, we know what he means by that. So, this attorney general is not about to go about meting out justice

in a fair and impartial manner. He showed us what he is. We have heard from him. I have absolutely no confidence that this lieutenant general will do what is right.

BURNETT: All right. I appreciate your time, very much. Congressman, thank you very much as always. I appreciate you.

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