JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's take a closer look now at the pandemic response from Capitol Hill
with the chair of the Coronavirus Oversight Committee.
I spoke this afternoon about that and other matters with Democratic Congressman James
Clyburn of South Carolina, who is also the House majority whip.
Representative Clyburn, thank you very much for joining us.
Your special subcommittee held a hearing this morning. You heard from top health officials
in the Trump administration, and you called on them to make drastic changes in the administration
approach to this pandemic, or you said another 150,000 Americans could die.
What changes do you want to see the administration make?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much for having me.
First of all, I do believe that the administration has had the kind of a program that I would
like to see, but they seem to be pushing that out to the states privately.
I want them to go to a national program. I want that would be well-coordinated, based
upon science.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think they will do that?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: I don't know if they will do it or not.
But I think the testimony today was very clear. Dr. Fauci, Dr. Redfield, Admiral Giroir, I
don't disagree with a thing that they're saying. But it just seems to me that they are really
working together. It's just not getting out to the states.
JUDY WOODRUFF: President Trump, as you may know, Representative Clyburn, tweeted during
the hear hearing. And he said this about you.
He said -- quote -- "Somebody please tell Congressman Clyburn, who" in his words, "doesn't
have a clue, that the chart he put up indicating more cases for the U.S. than Europe is because
we do much more testing than any other country in the world. If we had no testing or bad
testing, we'd show very few cases."
How do you respond?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: I respond like the experts responded.
Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield, all of them say, very succinctly, that this surge in additional
infections has little to do with one thing only. It's a plethora of things that are taking
place. So, the testing would not account for this increase.
This increase comes about because we were doing about 50 percent of what other countries
were doing. In other words, if people had masks or shields, if people will recognize
social distancing, that there might be a different thing.
But when you have got the president making fun of wearing a mask, not doing any social
distancing, not setting an example for the rest of the country, that is what the problem
is.
So, the testing has -- is just one part of it. The other part is whether or not we adhere
to what the scientists say is required for driving the numbers down.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Let me ask you about COVID relief legislation.
The White House chief of, Mark Meadows, said this morning that Republicans had made four
separate proposals to the Democrats on some kind of compromise. They said every single
one of them has been turned down, and with no counterproposal.
My question is, Mr. Clyburn, why not just agree -- among other things, they have suggested
a short-term extension. Why not at least agree to a short-term extension, so that these $600
in additional unemployment benefits will continue and won't lapse?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: Well, I can appreciate the fact, and I hope you appreciate, I'm not
in the room. I have no idea whether or not what -- Mr. Meadows would be reflecting accurately
what is going on in the -- these negotiations.
But I will say this. I do believe that we cannot allow people to lose their homes. We
can't allow renters to be put on the streets. We cannot allow unemployment -- unemployed
people to lose their insurance. We need to keep people with income, so that we can keep
this economy going.
So, what Mr. Meadows said, I don't know. I'm not one of the negotiators, so I'm not going
to pass judgment on that at all.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mr. Clyburn, as you know, Democrats are making a major push right now for more
access to mail-in voting.
Yesterday, at Congressman John Lewis' funeral, former President Obama spoke about it, said
-- was very critical of Republican efforts, in his words, to deny any votes.
Today, we had the White House adviser Stephen Miller saying that what President Obama said
was scandalously and outrageously false. He said that Republicans are not trying to do
any such thing.
Where do you come down on this?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: I think everybody knows that I have forever been for what I call voting
from home.
When we ask people to stay at home, we ought to make it available for them to vote from
home. And for some, that may be mail. For some, that may be dropping off their vote
at some predesignated place. We ought to be making it available for people to vote, when
they don't have a gathering.
People ought not be standing in line, as they did in Wisconsin, when people came away sick.
We can arrange to pay for people to vote while being socially distanced.
That's what I'm for. And for some people, it might be mailed in. I do mail-in voting
every year that we vote, because I always have to work on Election Day. And so I mail
my ballot in.
And the president seems to say there's something different with voting absentee than voting
my mail. I mailed my absentee in. So what's the difference? There is no difference.
And I think that Stephen Miller ought to be ashamed of himself.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And one other thing Mr. Miller said this morning, he said, it's shocking
that nobody who mails in a ballot has their identity confirmed. He said nobody checks
to see even if they're a U.S. citizen.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: We can check to see anything we want to check to see. Bar coding has been
with us forever. I don't know where he's been.
But you can always bar code every ballot to know whether or not the proper person cast
that ballot. It's never been any kind of a problem. They have done research on mail-in
ballots.
There's one state, I know, and I think there may be several states that vote 100 percent
by mail. So, what's -- nobody has ever found any fraud and abuse of that.
They are just trying to cloud the issue. They're looking for some way to try to postpone this
election. They're looking for some way not to have an election.
I have been saying now for about three years that this president doesn't plan to have an
election. He's not planning to give up the office. He thinks that the American people
will be duped by him, like the people of Germany was duped by Adolf Hitler.
JUDY WOODRUFF: One final thing, Representative Clyburn.
Vice President Biden, as you know, is saying he's going to announce next week which woman
he has chosen to be his running mate.
You have said you think it would be a plus, but not a must, for Joe Biden to choose an
African American woman.
My question to you, though, is with the -- what we have seen happen in this country over the
last few months, the push for racial justice, the sensitivity around racial justice, do
you not think it would be better if he chose an African American woman as his running mate?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: I still maintain it would be a plus.
I do believe that it is a little bit foolhardy for us to be focusing on the vice presidential
choice, rather than other things as well.
I long for an African American woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court. It's a
shame that we have had three women to sit on the United States Supreme Court, and no
one has ever given the kind of consideration that is due to an African American woman.
That, to me, is priority.
The V.P. is good on style, but, on substance, give me an African American woman on the Supreme
Court. That's where we determine how our democracy will be preserved.
This Supreme Court has neutered the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And so I am very concerned
about the composition of the United States Supreme Court.
JUDY WOODRUFF: House Majority Whip Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, thank you
very much.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN: Thanks for having me.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And this evening, there are new reports that Joe Biden will announce his
pick for running mate the week of August 10.