MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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MADDOW: Who would think that would become a controversial assertion in this country?

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Danny Davis of Chicago.

Congressman, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

REP. DANNY DAVIS (D), ILLINOIS: Well, it‘s my pleasure.

MADDOW: I‘m sorry that your city and our country didn‘t win the Olympic bid, you must be very disappointed.

DAVIS: Well, I‘m disappointed, but also, I know that Chicago is a city of big shoulders. People here have a tremendous amount of resiliency. We‘ll bounce back.

You know, I was thinking to myself back when I was a kid, there was a year that the Yankees did not win the World Series. We didn‘t win the championship every year that we had Michael Jordan, but we‘ll make it. We put forth a good, solid, honest effort, and the results just didn‘t come out the way we wanted them to.

MADDOW: I know that a recent poll showed that a huge majority, 84 percent of Americans supported Chicago‘s bid--Chicago hosting the 2016 Games. I have to ask you what you--what do you make of so many prominent conservatives quite literally cheering today when they heard that Chicago lost?

DAVIS: It‘s the strangest kind of patriotism that I‘ve ever encountered. I mean, I am stunned and absolutely amazed that individuals who will wrap themselves in the Constitution, the history of the country, but would express joy and glee because the country did not win the bid for the Olympics. Plus, I‘ve never encountered anywhere in my life where you have a referendum on political leadership, based upon whether or not you were able to bring the Olympics to your country or to your city. So, I think it‘s grasping and going way out beyond the pale.

MADDOW: And I know that not everyone in Chicago, not--it wasn‘t unanimous that everybody in Chicago wanted to have the Olympics there. I mean, it is a huge undertaking for any city and so it comes with any measure of controversy. But I actually wonder today--if you felt like that reaction on the right, people cheering against Chicago, conservatives rooting against Chicago, might end up unifying Chicagoans if only in defense of their own city, and their own reputation?

DAVIS: Well, I think that‘s going to happen, Chicago is a great city. We are proud of the effort that our mayor and the committee put forth. We are pleased that our native son went on the line himself, and he and the first lady of our country went and made a pitch.

But it just didn‘t work. The odds were kind of against us. You know, the fact that there had never been the Olympic Games in South America, I suspect that that weighed very heavily in some of the decisions that some members of the group who had the opportunity to vote took. And so, we just couldn‘t overcome that.

MADDOW: Do you think that President Obama would have been criticized today if he hadn‘t personally pushed for the Olympics?

DAVIS: Well, I think it‘s six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. Had he not gone, then people would have said, "Well, you know, if Obama had been there, it might have made a difference."

(LAUGHTER)

MADDOW: You can‘t win that for losing.

DAVIS: It would have been just the opposite. That‘s right.

MADDOW: Congressman Danny Davis, Democrat of Chicago--

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. A tough day for Chicago, but your optimism about and the resilience of your city is, I think, part of the reason that Chicago had such a good shot. Thank you, sir.

DAVIS: Thank you.

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