MSNBC "Decision '08" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Decision '08" - Transcript

MS. O'DONNELL: Democratic Congressman James Clyburn is the House majority whip and joins us now.

Congressman, great to see you. (Cheers, applause.)

REP. CLYBURN: Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

MS. O'DONNELL: Let me first ask you about the historic nature of tonight's speech, of course, on the 45th anniversary of what has come to be known as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

REP. CLYBURN: Right.

MS. O'DONNELL: Your reflections?

REP. CLYBURN: Well, when you think about King's speech that day, enunciating a dream, a dream that he talked about many, many times, I often reflect upon the part of that speech that came before that, that dealt with the urgency of now and the fact that we were called upon to do things now, time being neutral, only being what we make it; the letter that he wrote. You know, this is also the 45th anniversary of his letter from the Birmingham city jail.

MS. O'DONNELL: Sure.

REP. CLYBURN: And it was in that letter that King talked about the fact that the people of ill will in society are making much better use of time than the people of good will, and called upon us, really, the people of good will, to really get active and take advantage of what time we have here on earth.

MS. O'DONNELL: How have we come full circle? Or have we?

REP. CLYBURN: Well, I think this is another step. I've said to my caucus, when I spoke to them at our luncheon yesterday, I think we will take a giant step -- we did last night -- to making this a more perfect union. We'll never get there. You know, we'll get closer. But I don't think anybody ought to believe that even if we were to elect Barack Obama on November 4th, which I think we will, that that ends anything. That really begins a continuation of the process.

MS. O'DONNELL: Let me ask you, your colleague, Congressman John Lewis, has said on our air that he has cried -- (laughs) -- many times, and he would cry again, he thought, again on Thursday night. Is it a bit emotional for you? I mean, you were neutral for a long time in the Democratic primary.

REP. CLYBURN: Yes, this was very, very emotional for me. In fact, the night of the last two primaries, South Dakota and Montana, I had worked all day that day on the phones trying to get super- delegates to commit to Senator Obama, because I did not want him to close out the primary season short of the super-delegate votes he would need and then have to come to Capitol Hill looking for those votes.

MS. O'DONNELL: Right.

REP. CLYBURN: So we worked that night. That night it became clear that we had rounded up enough commitments for him to go over the top. I could not take it anymore. I mean, it was around 9:00, 9:15, they announced that he was going to speak at 10:00. I kind of sneaked out of the public gathering and I went home to watch the speech alone. And everybody asked me, did I control my emotions? And I'm not going to talk about that.

MS. O'DONNELL: (Laughs.)

REP. CLYBURN: I just watched it alone.

MS. O'DONNELL: And so tonight you will be there in Mile High Stadium.

REP. CLYBURN: I will be there. And I am hopeful that I'll control my emotions tonight.

MS. O'DONNELL: Oh, let it rip. (Laughs.) (Cheers, applause.)

REP. CLYBURN: (Laughs.)

MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman James Clyburn, thank you so much for joining us --

REP. CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.

MS. O'DONNELL: -- of course, the House majority whip. And you've always been so kind and been on MSNBC with everything. We appreciate it. Thanks so much.

REP. CLYBURN: I appreciate you.

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