MSNBC "All In With Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with James Clyburn
Interview
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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC) (via telephone): Thank you very much for having me. I don`t think anybody in the country is doing enough right now. I think that this kind of situation is something the country`s never been faced with, and nobody expected to ever be faced with anything like this. I applaud President Biden for doing the things necessary to try and reach out across the aisle. But it seems as if the other side decided that they`re not going to reciprocate.
I applaud Nancy Pelosi for doing tremendous work when she put together this piece of legislation that Bennie Thompson and Mr. Katko in a bipartisan way, send it from the House over to the Senate. But Mitch McConnell said, do me a personal favor and don`t vote for this. We need to get to the bottom of what is -- this interaction was all about. The American people -- more than 70 percent of American people want to find out exactly what this is all about, so that we can do what`s necessary to safeguard this democracy.
Yes, we are making a lot of attempts. But we aren`t accomplishing much because we cannot get any kind of support on the other side of the House. I applaud those members of the Homeland Security Committee. We work in a bipartisan way to produce a very good piece of legislation. And Mitch McConnell has decided that he was more loyal to Donald Trump than he is to the constitution that he was sworn to uphold.
HAYES: So, there`s a number of aspects of this, the January 6 Commission in terms of figuring out really what happened in a kind of comprehensive, systematic fashion issuing a report. They`re safeguarding American democracy against incursions that are happening the state level. There`s two pieces of legislation. There`s the For the People Act, H.R.1, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, H.R.4, if I`m not mistaken.
There`s a proposal to restore the section of the Voting Rights Act that was gutted. These are all floating around. But they`ve all sort of hit a roadblock in the Senate, and partially because all of those would need to fill -- clear filibuster. Joe Manchin, among others, I think the Senate Democratic Caucus thinks there`s a viable means to create a bipartisan compromise for it. And I want to play for you what he was saying today about the infrastructure bill, similar kind of thinking about working with Republicans to get the votes necessary. Take a listen. I want to get your response to it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready to go it alone with just Democrats?
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I don`t think you should. I really don`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At all, anything?
MANCHIN: And I don`t think -- right now, basically, we need to be bipartisan. If we can`t become -- I`ve always said this. I`ve never seen a pothole that had a Republican or Democrat name on it. It will bust your tire. I don`t care who you are.
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HAYES: What do you think about Senator Manchin`s approach and what it what it spells for these different parts of the agenda?
CLYBURN: Well, I agree with Senator Manchin that it`s better not to go it alone. But I cannot understand in feeling that if the only way to get it done is to go it alone, then you should not get it done because that`s what he is saying. Something is amiss with his thinking. This country has massive need. Bridges are crumbling, all around us. This isn`t about potholes. This is about bridges. This is about broadband.
We`ve got children who are about to lose a second year of school because they cannot get broadband in their homes. And so, if you can`t get broadband in a bipartisan way, and we got the Democrats to do it, then we ought to go it alone. It`s not the first time that something is going to happen for the benefit of the country and did not get any Republicans to vote for it. We couldn`t get them to vote for the Affordable Care Act. They said we have just left that out because we couldn`t get bipartisan support. Come on, Joe Manchin. Let`s Get Real.
HAYES: Congressman James Clyburn joining us on the phone, of course, member of House leadership, represents the district in South Carolina. Congressman, thank you so much for your time tonight.
CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much for having me.
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