NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Clyburn
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
CHUCK TODD:
And joining me now is the Democratic congressman from South Carolina, Jim Clyburn. He's also the House Majority Whip. Congressman Clyburn, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Thank you for having me.
CHUCK TODD:
Bernie Sanders, Democratic frontrunner at this point. Do you accept the fact that he's right now the odds-on favorite to be the Democratic nominee?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Well, I would accept the fact that he's the frontrunner. I want South Carolina to have its say before I talk about who would be the odds-on favorite.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, let's talk about South Carolina. I want to throw up an entrance poll graphic of African American voters in Nevada. And just because African American voters vote one way in Nevada doesn't mean they'll vote another way in South Carolina, but I want to show this. Biden at 39, but Sanders getting 27%, Steyer at 16, Warren at 10 among African American voters in Nevada. I looked at that and it felt like a reasonable South Carolina poll going in with a week to go. Is that how you would see the spread right now in South Carolina?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
I don't know if I've spent enough time trying to figure out exactly who has how much, but all these candidates will get some African American votes, no question about that. I do believe, however, that if we were having the election tomorrow, that Joe Biden would have more of the vote. How much more, I don't know yet. I think that the debate on Tuesday night will have an impact. And I think that some activity after that might have an impact as well.
CHUCK TODD:
Are you concerned -- look, Joe Biden believes you're going to endorse him. A lot of people believe you want to endorse Joe Biden. You have said you know who you're going to vote for at this point, but you want to wait until after the debate. But has Joe Biden done enough to assuage any concerns in South Carolina about his electability yet?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Well, I think that what has happened here is that in the first two contests, people from South Carolina, like around the country, were looking at this. And I've heard from a lot of the people that they thought that Joe Biden could have done more to engage on the -- during the debates. They thought he could have done more to say why he would be deserving. And so I think he suffered from that because he didn't do enough, but I do believe that a lot of that had to do with the other candidates. I think that at that time you had, what, 17 or 18 people on the stage. Kamala Harris, I think, unnerved him a little bit with her question. So all of this changes when you only have six people. So the dynamics on Tuesday night will be totally different from what they were on those two contests.
CHUCK TODD:
What did you learn from the last debate? Do you think that candidates spent too much time on Bloomberg or too much time attacking each other? What was your takeaway from the debate?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
I think they spent too much time on Bloomberg. I think that there's enough going on out there to leave it up to you guys to talk about his record. But I thought that Elizabeth Warren did herself a lot of good. She demonstrated to the viewing public that she has tenacity and she was not unwilling to engage. So she did herself a lot of good.
CHUCK TODD:
I think at one point you and others believed that the winner of the South Carolina primary would be the Democratic nominee. Do you believe that now?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Well, I still believe that South Carolina's record -- you know, I'm a history guy and, you know, I'm informed about history. And on both sides of the coin, I remember John McCain coming into South Carolina the odds-on favorite. He left South Carolina in bad shape. We had Barack Obama to win South Carolina and be launched all the way to the presidency. Hillary Clinton won South Carolina and became the odds-on favorite and she won the nomination. So South Carolina has a demographic that lends itself well to Democratic voters especially. So I think that if you can win South Carolina decisively, I think you will set the stage for Super Tuesday and you will become the odds-on favorite.
CHUCK TODD:
Let me ask you about the likelihood of Sanders as the nominee. One of your Democratic colleagues in the state of South Carolina, Joe Cunningham, appears to be quite nervous about this. Here's what he said. "South Carolinians don't want socialism. We want to know how you are going to get things done and how you are going to pay for them. Bernie's proposals to raise taxes on almost everyone is not something the Lowcountry wants and not something I'd ever support." Again, Democratic member of Congress, Joe Cunningham. This is one of those Trump districts that you guys successfully flipped in '18.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Right.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you concur with your colleague?
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Well, I concur with his conclusions. I don't know that all that should apply to Bernie Sanders. I have worked very closely with Bernie Sanders on many issues. Community health centers, we have been working on that together for 15 years. And so I do believe that community health centers, as well as other initiatives in rural America, I think that Bernie Sanders brings a lot to the table for people to consider. So I know why he's nervous like that. Anybody who refers to themselves as a democratic socialist, that word has always had really dire consequences throughout South Carolina.
CHUCK TODD:
Is there a chance you'd decide not to endorse publicly before the primary? I say that because maybe you're not comfortable with where a certain candidacy is headed.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
There's no chance that I won't endorse.
CHUCK TODD:
Okay.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
I will endorse Wednesday morning. I'm not -- I've just gotten there. I just believe it be -- it would not be good for me to hold myself out as a person who has been in South Carolina politics for as long as I've been and not say to people who've been asking me --
CHUCK TODD:
Who you're going to support, yes.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
-- who I'm for.
CHUCK TODD:
Right.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
So I'm going to tell everybody who I'm going to vote for. I'm just not going to do it today.
CHUCK TODD:
Jim Clyburn, Democratic House Majority Whip, Democratic -- the dean of the Democratic delegation down there in South Carolina. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views, sir.
REP. JIM CLYBURN:
Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source