CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Jim Clyburn

Interview

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ACOSTA: President Biden's agenda is in jeopardy tonight with Democrats divided over his $3.5 trillion tax and spending package.

And joining us now to talk about that and more, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. Congressman, thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us.

The White House seems to be framing this as a choice for Democrats, get onboard or you're going to miss the train. Is it fair for the White House to put it in those terms when, obviously, there are members of your party who have real concerns about this?

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, Jim, thank you very much for having me. There's always concern when you put a price tag on anything, and I think what has happened here is that the communication around this build back better plan, which has a ceiling of 3.5 trillion, is just that a ceiling. No one has ever said that's an exact number or that's a floor. It's up to $3.5 trillion. Now, I see that Joe Manchin has mentioned a $1.5 trillion number. So, somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5, there is $2 trillion. Those $2 trillion are there.

And I think there's a lot of room for people to sit down and negotiate. It may be when you sit around the table, you may not need 3.5 trillion to do what the president wants done and what the country needs done. But let's work on it and stay out of all of this negotiating in the media. That's not the way to negotiate. Let's keep this around the table and see what we can come up with.

[18:45:02]

ACOSTA: And here's what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to say about Senator Joe Manchin trying to put pause on this bill. Let's watch.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): It's not just, you know, Senator Manchin that has leverage. Frankly, the entire party also needs to, quote/unquote, worry about that more moderate agenda in the House, because just as we have an extremely slim Senate margin, we also have a very slim House margin. So, we aren't saying it's either your bill or our bill, but that both of these bills must move forward together or neither will.

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ACOSTA: You worry that the moderate Democrats agenda could tank both of these bills?

CLYBURN: I don't worry about that but I am concerned about that. I do believe that that's why we need to stay at the table and look on what needs to be done to do what the American people would like to see.

Remember we have a history here that we ought to be guided by. When you start trying to recover, this country when it tried to recover from this so-called Great Depression and you put things together, and everybody says that Franklin Roosevelt did a great job.

Well, remember when they did Social Security, they left out farm workers. They left out domestic workers. Who were those farm workers, and who were those domestic workers? There were people especially in the South, there were people of color.

Now, we can't put together a package today, and I'll remind all of my friends that leave people out. To me, the number one thing we need to be concerned about is this coverage gap. This coverage gap is there. There are 12 states where Americans cannot get health care coverage, and we need to take care of the people in these 12 states.

We can't keep leaving this stuff up to states to decide who to cover, who not to cover. The Senate did a great job with its $1 trillion program. But they only cover 65 percent of the broadband that needs to be covered.

Who do you think is going to be covered by the 65 percent, and what 35 percent do you think is going to get left out? So we've got to be serious about this.

And the same thing applies -- you just had a piece here about nursing home care down in New Orleans. Nursing home workers need to be brought into this, and we need to take care of nursing home care because that's where Medicaid money pays for that. Yet we see people wanting to take care of Medicare and then not do right by people on Medicaid.

What 19-year-old low income person gets Medicare? That 19-year-old is eligible for Medicaid. And so we need to take care of the 19-year-olds and the 90-year-olds. Take care of everybody.

And so, that's why we've got to stay at the table and stop all this foolishness about how much it costs. How much will it cost if we don't do this? Just think about what it's going to cost down in New Orleans about those nursing homes down there that have allowed people to die. That's a big cost that this country can do without.

ACOSTA: Yeah. It's certainly is a desperate situation down there, Congressman.

All right. Congressman Jim Clyburn, thanks so much for joining us this evening. We appreciate it.

CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me.

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