MSNBC "Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell - Transcript Interview with Lloyd Doggett

Interview

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O`DONNELL: Congressman Doggett, very sorry to be reporting that the

coronavirus is raging as strongly as it is in your state of Texas. What do

you think the state has to do now?

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D-TX): Well, first, Lawrence, I think, as usual, you

have the right priority. It should be doctors first. It should be medical

science first. If we`d listen to the doctors instead of the politicians

that keep doctoring the truth, we would be in a much better position today.

Our problem in Texas is the same one that we have everywhere with a total

lack of national leadership. But we have had a governor in Greg Abbott, who

has attached himself firmly to Donald Trump on everything I think except

injecting Lysol.

And this week he finally kind of began to see what was happening here. I

would add really in terms of what we need to do in Texas that since we have

a void of state leadership and a void of national leadership, at least

unshackle the local officials like Mayor Adler or Mayor Ron Nirenberg of

San Antonio who`ve been trying to do the right thing.

But they will -- the governor will not even permit them to require masks to

limit activity at construction sites. He has severely restricted local

officials from being able to protect our health and as a result Texas

cities are tonight very dangerous places.

O`DONNELL: Dr. Roy, the governor of Texas said tonight that if he could go

back and re-do anything, it would probably be to slow down the opening of

bars. He now regrets and is publically saying that he regrets opening up

bars and bars seem to be one of the hot spots in the places where they have

opened up.

ROY: Yes. And by the way, my heartfelt feelings towards (inaudible) Doggett

and the state of Texas given the hellish period that we went through here

in New York, I wouldn`t wish that upon my worst enemy. But yes, bars,

restaurants, indoor dining, that`s where we saw actually a lot of the young

people go to.

And surprise, surprise, we`re seeing the rise in cases amongst our young

people. But they`re not the ones that are getting severely ill and dying.

They`re infecting older people who are then getting sick and dying. It`s a

real problem, but I agree.

I mean, what do we do here in New York State? Our local officials, mayors

and governors shut things down. It was painful, but now look at our cases.

We`ve come down really nicely because these social public health measures

work, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: Congressman, you`re running up to ICU bed capacity in Houston at

this point. One of the things that strikes me about this is that Dallas is

one of the great medical centers of this country with some of the finest

work that has been done over the years.

And it`s kind of surprising from the outside that the medical community,

the very sophisticated medical community of Texas seems to have had no

effect on your governor.

DOGGETT: Well, the governor claimed he had the medical backing for what he

was doing and then he opened the state when he couldn`t match three of the

four key indicators for opening. I think in terms of action that we need

now so much of it is testing.

We could have learned from New York and from Italy, but we did not learn.

Unfortunately, we followed the Trump-Pence path to nowhere, the path that

has led us to have more infections and more deaths amazingly than any

country in the entire world.

But in Texas, I think about the report I got about this morning in Austin,

that there were people lined up trying to get test at community health

centers at 3:30 in the morning and by 6:30 they ran out of testing.

That`s the lack of national or state leadership to get those tests

available so people will know and to recognize that until we get a handle

on this epidemic we will never get back to sustained economic growth. So it

is all very tied together.

O`DONNELL: Congressman Lloyd Doggett, I`m very sorry about the situation in

your state. Tonight we appreciate you being here and Dr. Lipi Roy, thank

you very much for your expertise on this.

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