Ep. 402 — Rep. Jim Clyburn

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2020

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Rep. Jim Clyburn was growing up in the 1940s and 50s in segregated South Carolina, his parents had an important message for him: study hard, work hard and dream big. That lesson stayed with Rep. Clyburn, whether he was fighting for civil rights as a college student or winning a 1992 election to become South Carolina’s first Black Congressman since 1897. As a longtime Congressional leader, Rep. Clyburn’s endorsement is one of the most coveted among presidential hopefuls each cycle. He talked with David about why he still believes that nonviolent demonstration is the best route to achieving social justice, the dangers of a president who refuses to apologize for his mistakes, why legislators need to learn to work across the aisle and what he thinks of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s VP pick.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Music
0:06.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files, with your host, David Axelrod.
0:20.0	Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina played a major role in the story of this 2020 presidential campaign
0:27.0	when his late endorsement of Joe Biden in the South Carolina primary led to a landslide victory that revived the Biden campaign
0:34.0	and launched the former vice president to the nomination.
0:37.0	But in South Carolina, Clyburn has long been a legend for his 60 years as a civil rights activist and political leader.
0:44.0	And he's a force on Capitol Hill as a longtime Democratic whip, the number three leader in the House.
0:51.0	He sat down with him this week to talk about the election, the tragic events in Kenosha, and his own extraordinary life.
0:58.0	Here's that conversation.
1:07.0	Congressman Jim Clyburn, it's good to see you again.
1:10.0	Thank you.
1:11.0	The legend has only grown since...
1:13.0	Get out of here.
1:15.0	Since the 2008-1910 period when we were working together, I want to talk to you about your amazing journey.
1:27.0	But before we do, I want to ask you about the convention last night in the general state of our campaign right now, the politics right now.
1:36.0	Did you watch the convention?
1:39.0	Yes.
1:40.0	I watched... I don't think I watched the first two speakers, but from then on, I watched it very closely.
1:48.0	And it was just amazed.
1:53.0	I don't know why I would have expected something different, but I thought that what we saw last night was just more of division, more of which issues,
2:09.0	just a throwback to what I thought we had gotten beyond.
2:16.0	I think I took the president at his words when he said that it would be uplifting.
	...

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