MSNBC Interview - Transcript
Interview
MS. MITCHELL: Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail today with Senator Claire McCaskill by his side of Missouri, but stealing the headlines is what the senator did or did not say to the House Democratic leaders last night on Capitol Hill. The Washington Post quotes Senator Obama saying, "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." The paper now adds, but one leadership aide said that the full quote put it into a different context. According to that congressional aide, Obama said, "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin is not about me at all, a very different context. It's about America," he said. "I have just become a symbol."
Democratic Whip James Clyburn was inside that meeting and is an Obama supporter.
Congressman, what did Senator Obama really say? How did you interpret what he said at the meeting last night?
REP. CLYBURN: It was very much like your latter quote. What he said was and, quite frankly, was in response to what one of the members prefaced the question by. He said I wish I could take credit for that, but I can't because it's not about me. It's about America. It's about the people of Germany and the people of Europe looking for new hope, new relationships as we go forward in the world.
So he expressly said that it's not about me.
MS. MITCHELL: Well, you know, Dana Milbank in The Washington Post had a column about this today, which was picked up right here on MSNBC, Morning Joe had a lot of conversation about this, and one of the things that Dana wrote is, quote, "Even committee chairmen arrived early as for the State of the Union. The Capitol Police cleared the halls just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him through a side door, just as they door for the actual president."
Two points here, first of all, he has security as do -- both he and John McCain. He has had security longer because of the context and the situation with him and the possibility of possible threats against his life.
Do you think that he is acting above or beyond what a normal candidate would act? Can he blamed for what the Service does professionally around him? Don't they take the lead on all of that without consultation with the protectee?
REP. CLYBURN: In fact, he cannot take blame for that, in fact, these men and women around him have got a job to do. They know exactly what their jobs are. They do all kinds of assessments almost on a daily basis and they act and react according to their own information.
I am sure that Senator Obama has very little to do and he has very little about what's going on in their factoring of how they carry out their work and we ought to leave them alone, let them do their work so that they can protect this man the same as they do for the Speaker of the House and a few others up here. We ought to just leave them alone.
MS. MITCHELL: One of the things that Maureen Dowd reported in The New York Times was that some said that his reception on the Hill was, in fact, not as enthusiastic as the one that Hillary Clinton got when she returned from her odyssey, that the room warmed to him mainly because he told the lawmakers how much he would need them to get policies passed if he gets elected.
Is that a fair take?
REP. CLYBURN: Well, I don't know -- I was at both meetings, unless they're talking about Senator Clinton's return to the Senate. I don't know what happened over there. But his return was just as enthusiastic as Senator Clinton's was as far as the House caucus is concerned, in fact, it was a larger one, in fact, people pulled out of the room, remember, this was after six in the evening and a lot of employees fill up the hallways, stayed around waiting for him to exit the room. And so I think that the enthusiasm was there, but Senator Obama talked about policy. He wanted this caucus to know that he was there to work with them in carrying this country forward on some very positive and needed policy issues and I thought that was good. But I understand some people wanted to hear politics. There's plenty of enough time for politics. We've only got a few more days left this week of policy before we go into our convention, or into our break.
And so that's what he talked about and we can talk about politics in the three weeks running up to the convention.
MS. MITCHELL: Congressman, let me ask you about a new John McCain ad that has just been released by their campaign. They say it is going to run in the normal run of states, not just in selected states, so this is a real buy, not just a symbolic buy and it does go after Barack Obama on the issue of whether he's become more celebrity than policymaker and politician. Let me let you look at it and we'll talk on the other side.
(Begin videotaped segment.)
ANNOUNCER: He's the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead? With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling and says he'll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes, more foreign oil. That's the real Obama.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): I'm John McCain and I approved this message.
(End videotaped segment.)
MS. MITCHELL: So I don't know if you were able to see the flash flames, the flash frames, rather.
REP. CLYBURN: Yeah.
MS. MITCHELL: Of, you know --
REP. CLYBURN: I was not. I was not able to see it, but I've read about that ad.
MS. MITCHELL: Well, you've got Britney Spears and Paris Hilton --
REP. CLYBURN: Yeah.
MS. MITCHELL: Merging visually in that crowd over the shots of Berlin, obviously. So they're trying to equate him and there was just a conference call with Rick Davis, his campaign manager, saying, that that's a fair equation, that that's not apples and oranges, it's apples and apples because he is a celebrity. He has created himself as a celebrity.
Is that a fair context?
REP. CLYBURN: I don't think that's fair at all, and I think, you know, Senator McCain is a very honorable man and why he's allowing himself to be aligned with a dishonorable campaign, I don't know. But this ad, as well as the factual situations he's been laying out as to what did or did not happen in Germany with the visit to the wounded troops, the man who had already visited wounded troops in Iraq, who went before he left the country went out to Walter Reed Hospital to visit with wounded troops. For them to continue to misrepresent the facts like this seems like desperation to me and that kind of --
MS. MITCHELL: Well, congressman, I can attest to the accuracy of what you're saying about that; I was there and you have that and the Obama campaign is correct that he wasn't bringing any kind of entourage or camera crews or reporters with him. But did he open himself up to the attack on celebrity by scheduling that big event in Berlin? Was that a mistake?
REP. CLYBURN: Well, I don't think that it was a mistake at all. I think that having that big event in Berlin would have been criticized if he didn't do it. I think that if all of us looked forward to him going there because he is an American running for President of the United States. He is an American that everybody wanted to see just how the people of Europe would react to him. And so we had had presidents there, former president, at that time, President Kennedy. We had President Reagan. And a lot of people wanted to see what kind of reaction the people of Europe would have to this man who may become commander-in-chief, who may become the person they would stand on the stage, same stage with as equal partners.
So I think that all of that was a thing that he should have done and maybe it casts him in celebrity status. But in my way of thinking, the moment you become the nominee for president of either party, you become a celebrity. I think Senator McCain is a celebrity.
MS. MITCHELL: Well, we'll be able to ask one of his top spokespeople about that. So thank you very much. Jim Clyburn, number three ranking member on the Hill.
REP. CLYBURN: Thank you.
MS. MITCHELL: Majority Whip. Thanks very much for being with us.
REP. CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me. Thank you.
END.
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