CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman James Clyburn
Interview
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TAPPER: All right, Symone Sanders, congratulations again. Really appreciate it.
If you can remember all the way back to February, it was the South Carolina primary that started the Biden campaign wave that has now crested in his presidency.
Joining me now is a man who was essential, even pivotal to that win, House majority Whip Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement before the South Carolina primary gave new life to Joe Biden's then somewhat flailing campaign. Majority Whip Clyburn, thanks so much for joining us.
I want you to take a listen to what president-elect Biden had to say last night about the black community.
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BIDEN: Especially for those moments when this campaign was at its lowest ebb, the African-American community stood up again for me.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: You've always had my back, and I will have yours.
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TAPPER: I don't think it's hyperbole to say that, if it were not for you and black voters in South Carolina, I don't know what I would be covering this morning.
You gave Biden's campaign new life. And if it were not for you, I don't think he would have gotten the nomination. And I have no idea whether -- whether or not I'd be covering a Democratic president-elect and Kamala Harris as vice president-elect or the reelection of Donald Trump.
What do you think about that?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, it all came from the voters of South Carolina.
First of all, thank you very much for having me.
But, you know, when I was trying to decide how to become involved in the campaign, I was always going to vote for Joe Biden. But it's not until an encounter in a rural church in Richland County, South Carolina, with an elderly lady sitting on the front bench.
And she called me over to her. And she asked me, who was I going to vote for? And when I told her -- and it was kind of interesting, because she says, "If you don't want anybody else to hear, just lean down and whisper it in my ear."
And I did what she asked me to do. But she snapped her head back. And the way she looked in my face and told me, I needed to hear that, and this community needs to hear from you.
And that what made me do what I did in the manner that I did it. So, it all bubbled up from the people that I serve. So, I think that that is what it was all about.
TAPPER: Do you think, as many observers do, that Joe Biden may have been the only Democrat, because of his life story, because of the fact that the American people knew him, so he was relatively immune to the smearing that the president attempted of him, because of his connections to the black community and Barack Obama, because of his connections to white voters and his time growing up in Scranton, do you think that he might have been the only Democrat that could have beaten President Trump, who you would acknowledge is a real political force in the United States?
CLYBURN: That's what I thought.
I looked at all of the candidates. And I'm friends, I mean, close friends, with a lot of them. But I came to the conclusion, after that experience in the church, calling a few people, I just came to the conclusion that Joe Biden was our best bet.
I'm not going to say he's the only one. But I will say I thought he was the best bet to go into the general election, because incumbency is what it is. And it's a real force. When you can master the levels of government all across the country, you can really get things done that sometimes cannot be seen with the naked eye.
And so, with all of this as a backdrop, I just felt a guy who had been vice president to the first African-American president in these United States for eight years, and very loyal vice president, and because he spent so much time in South Carolina, Delaware being the state that it is, a part of Brown v. Board of Education, a lot of people don't recognize that.
Brown v. Board of Education started in South Carolina. But it was five states...
TAPPER: That's right.
CLYBURN: ... well, four states and the District of Columbia...
TAPPER: Yes.
CLYBURN: ... involved in that.
[09:15:00]
So, these are the kinds of experiences Joe Biden has had. And I have talked to him about them for 20-some-odd years.
TAPPER: Right.
CLYBURN: And so I just believed that he was the best bet.
TAPPER: Joe Biden's been the president-elect for about 24 hours now.
President Trump has not conceded the race. Should Trump concede the race? How should president-elect Biden handle this potentially volatile situation?
CLYBURN: Well, I think Trump should concede.
But I also think that the Republican Party has a responsibility here. This country is bigger than any one person. This democracy is teetering. He called it an inflection point. We are in a very dire set of consequences here. And we had better get
hold of ourselves and this country and stop catering to whims of one person.
So, it doesn't matter to me whether or not he concedes. What matters to me is whether or not the Republican Party will step up and help us preserve the integrity of this democracy.
We have been the envy of the world, but we have also received a lot of disdain from places around the world.
See, I'm old enough to remember Nikita Khrushchev. I remember that speech at the United Nations when he looked out and says: "We will bury you."
TAPPER: Yes.
CLYBURN: I will never forget that.
And so, I don't understand how Republicans can allow Putin to dictate the fortunes of this country. And that is what is going on here.
TAPPER: Yes.
Yes, so, Majority Whip Clyburn, I just want to ask you. There's going to be, obviously, some struggles between the moderate wing of the Democratic Party and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Congresswoman Abigail Stanberger -- Spanberger, who represents a competitive Trump district in Virginia, she called Tuesday's election, in which House Democrats lost seats, she called it a failure for House Democrats. She appeared to blame progressives for the party's underperforming in some House races and said that Democrats -- quote -- "need to not ever use the word socialist or socialism again."
She expressed disdain and dismay that she had to defend the concept of defunding the police and more.
You were on that conference call. Do you share her concerns about progressives in the party moving the party too far to the left?
CLYBURN: Well, Jake, you may remember, months ago, I came out very publicly and very forcibly against sloganeering.
I happen to also be -- you know, John Lewis and I were co -- were founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. John and I sat on the House floor and talked about that defund the police slogan, and both of us concluded that it had the possibilities of doing to the Black Lives Matter movement and current movements across the country what "Burn, baby, burn" did to us back in 1960.
We lost that movement over that slogan. And a lot of people don't realize it, but John Lewis walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in February 1965. A year later, we got the Voting Rights Act out of that, six months later. And it wasn't a year after that that John Lewis was ousted as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. And so we saw the same thing happening here.
So, I spoke about against the sloganeering. And I feel very strongly we can't pick up these things just because it makes a good headline. It sometimes destroys headway.
We need to work on what makes headway, rather than what makes headlines.
TAPPER: Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the dean of the South Carolina congressional delegation and the most powerful African-American in the United States government, until January 20, we should note, when vice president-elect Kamala Harris takes office.
Majority Whip Clyburn, it's been an honor having you on the show. Thanks so much.
CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me.
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