He is also the chairman of the Rural Broadband task force and democratic working group. He came to congress in 1993 representing South Carolinas sixth Congressional District and rapidly demonstrated his leadership skills in the first year he was elected both president of his freshman class and quickly rose through the. Leadership rank he was subsequently elected chairman of the black caucus and later chairman of the House Democratic caucus. He previously served as minority , andfrom 2007 to 2011 served as assistant democratic leader from 2011 to 2019. Hisderstand that he Began Service in elected office at age 12 when he was elected as president of his naacp youth chapter. He has longstanding skills in elected office. He comes from very humble beginnings. Is from sumter, South Carolina the oldest son of an activist, minister and an independent, strong and civic minded his family taught him many important values that he draws on now, the importance of family ,nd community, faith, integrity do bothct we really admire you and your service, but we need you now. Tonk you for joining us reflect on important issues before us. Would be probably only appropriate to really begin reflect, and ao broadway, on the state of race and race relation issues, social justice issues, and equality our country. This has been a sad and challenging time with the loss of so many key figures in the Civil Rights Movement. Ivian, rep or reverend joseph lowery, elijah cummings, and laying to rest your friend and colleague john lewis. You mentioned that john lewis was a hero to the country, and icon to the movement, and importantly your friend. Reallyis loss, you now take up the mantle in some ways voice on civil rights issues in this country with your history and experience, but also with the work you are doing now. Perhaps i can turn to you for some broad reflections. Thank you very much for that and thank you for having me. Your tremendous service, especially to the health field. I am very concerned about that. As for my 60 year long friendship with john lewis. John and i first met in october of 1960, the weekend of october 15 on the campus of morehouse college. Its the same day i met Martin Luther king jr. May beght, as many aware, there was a little bit of a disagreement between the , Martin Luther king jr. And others, as to what the approach ought to be. Some were advocating nonviolence for breaking unjust laws, paying the penalty, going to jail. , he himselfeekend had never been to jail. A lot of us felt, and i was in that group, that you lead not just by precept but by example. Challenging some of those notions. In order to resolve those differences, we met that night in a room on the campus. We went into that meeting around 10 00 in the evening and it did not come out until 4 00 the next morning. It was supposed to be an hourlong meeting, but it lasted much longer than that. Ie out of the meeting call it my transformation. I was a different person. I was enamored by king. In thoseamatically four or five hours. Was also committed to that movement. I will tell everybody, there has always been a Civil Rights Movement in this country. The 1700s,back to , theumter rebellion episodes in charleston in the 1800s. The Niagara Movement in the early 1900s which led to the creation of the naacp. All of those were Civil Rights Movements. In every movement somebody rises to the top. He was head and shoulders a bum head and shoulders above everyone else, that was john lewis in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. I cringe when people say you took part in the Civil Rights Movement. I took part in a Civil Rights Movement. For as long as you have people suppressionected to and other sorts of unjust laws, there is going to be a Civil Rights Movement. John internalize nonviolence. A lot of us accepted nonviolence as a tactic. I am in that group. It and itnalized became his way of life. John was near sainthood as far as i am concerned. I often talked to him when he got ousted as the chair of the student nonviolent corps, that was 1966. John then got involved in education stuff. He chaired or was the director of an education project in atlanta and i chaired the good education activities going on in charleston. So we interacted again. We went all over the south registering people to vote. Can you imagine in 1965 when john crossed that bridge, only 2 of africanamericans in the state of alabama were registered to vote. For usour work cut out and it worked well. Bloodysult of that sunday marched in 1965, we got the 1965 Voting Rights act in august of that year. Symbol of civil rights in this country. President obama was accurate, that he is a founding father of the new america that all of us have worked so hard for. Me, deserving, to of every accolade that has been given to him and even much more. To changey i am moved the new Voting Rights act, to change the name to the john r lewis Voting Rights act. I would hope it is passed through the house, i hope the senate will pass it, because what we are trying to do is restore the efficacy of the 1965 Voting Rights act which was restored by a Court Decision that came in years ago. V. The case of Shelby County holder. Worked, and an bipartisan way with jim sensenbrenner, a republican from wisconsin. They worked together to put out a new format and updated the way the court asked us to. Thats what we did when we passed the law. The senate is refusing to pass that law. This will be the first election since 1965 that there wont be the protections of the Voting Rights act. Think you hear so so manythere are shenanigans going on in washington today, because people know that voting precincts can be changed the day before the election. Thats what they did in louisville, i think it was two days before the election in louisville, kentucky. They have done the same thing in South Carolina. You tod laws, forcing provide your full Social Security number if you wanted absentee ballot. These are suppression tactics that ought not to be in this country. , onee been warning people thing i learned by studying and teaching history is that anything that has happened before can happen again. It does not have to be confined to other countries. This democracy is very tenuous. Lost ifocracy could be we are not careful. Dr. Hamburg those are powerful words and i think we all deeply appreciate what they mean. We also appreciate the role you are playing and trying to help protect our democracy, and protect the right to vote as we go into a very important election a set of very important elections this fall with voting and access to the polls and appropriate ballots is on our minds. You were talking about a set of critical inflection points and moments in our country and the history of the Civil Rights Movement. This certainly feels like another critical moment, not only the recognition of what we have lost in terms of key leaders like john lewis, but this summer seeing the remarkable rising up of protest and calls to action to address issues of continuing social injustice and rasul discrimination Racial Discrimination following the senseless murder of george floyd and calls in this country have echoed around the world. We find ourselves in the midst of this unprecedented Coronavirus Crisis which is having devastating and disproportionate burdens on people of color in terms of terms ofut also in Economic Security and economic futures. Leading the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, of course you are responding to this broader landscape around these concerns of Racial Disparities and discrimination, and injustice. You see reason for hope . Do you see a path forward, do you think we can build on this current tragedy and crisis towards a Better Future . Rep. Clyburn absolutely. You mentioned two things in your introduction to me, number one i am south carolinian. Whileto of my state is i breathe i hope. As also born and raised me the efficacy the 11th chapter, the first verse the evidence of things unforeseen. I keep faith. Was, more than anybody ever knew kept his faith even when he was within an inch of his life. He never lost faith. I read a letter from a police chief down in florida who sent me a letter and asked me to convey to the family of john lewis how much he fought for john lewis. He talked about a chance he had to meet him in an airport, i guess it was Logan Airport in boston, massachusetts. That is what you learn. You dont give up. This country is in pursuit of perfection. It is there in the preamble. The pursuit of a more perfect union. We will never get there, but we should always be in search of that. I am not giving up on the country. Toelieve that we are going get through this pandemic, i believe we are going to get through this racial strife. My wife and i met in jail. It works for us, we stayed married 58 years. [laughter] last september, having lost a 30 year battle to diabetes. We never gave up on this country. We talked about it often. Right after labor day she was still talking about the election like john lewis. The last thing john lewis said to the former mayor of Atlanta Campbell who spoke at his funeral, tell people to vote. We are not giving up on this country. I think we will get beyond all of this and i will do everything i can. And i always said that really mean this when i say that if political differences between only requireonent five steps i dont mind taking three of them, thats the way i approach governance. Thats the way i approach trying position i hold as majority whip. Trying to meet people more than halfway. I am not giving up on the country. We are going to get through all of this. Revealedvid19 has some fault lines in our system, especially our health care system. Rereadof my readings, i a twovolume book called democracy in america. Something in that book was very interesting. Greatd america is not because it is more enlightened than any other nation, but because it has always been able to repair its faults. Thats what i believe. Some fault lines have been exposed. In health care, education, hasing, covid19 exacerbated some of that. What we have to do now as a country is repair those faults. That is where our greatness is. Congress has to do what it can to prepare the repair those faults. By wrapping our arms around it, joining hands with others, and doing what is necessary to overcome it. I think we are going to get through this. Its not going to be pleasant. We will survive and have another election. I think the election will do what it has always done and set this country back on track. Dr. Hamburg i want to get to the election in a minute. First i want to talk a little more about covid19. It is such a pressing issue. You feel that in your own state unfortunately, a significant rise in cases and deaths across our whole nation. Sadly, we are leading the world in this terrible scourge. When we compare ourselves to other nations that have already grappled with this virus, we see that our response has not been as effective and has not allowed resumeeally begin to some of the activities we all care so much about in the ways that other countries have, because of having had a stronger national response. I watched your hearing on friday on covid19 with dr. Fauci, redfield, and i have to congratulate you on your patience and diplomatic skills. There were some fairly wild moments. I guess you are used to that. I thought overall it was a constructive hearing. You did Say Something at one point that really stuck with me that builds on what you are just saying. You quoted Martin Luther king, saying the time is always right to do the right thing. , are wed the question using our time well . From what you have been learning ,bout the response to covid19 and what you are seeing in your own district, state, and our nation, what do you think are the critical next steps that we need to take . Clearly we dont have a National Plan. That has put us in a bad place. Drawing on your optimism and hope, what are some critical next steps . Rep. Clyburn the most critical week in the most critical step we can take is developing a National Plan. Did not refrain from saying that the reason the European Union has done so much better than we have done with this virus is the fact that when they shut down, they shut down from 90 to 95 . When we finally got around to shutting down after postponing starting with, one person from china to 15 people who may be affected mythicalthat some curable, and we will it will go away. We shut down only by 50 and did not have the patience to hold to we opened back up too soon. We are in a second surge. Adont think we started second round, we are in a second surge of the first round. I am not an expert in this, i am studying this stuff like everyone, but i think we will have a real problem reopening schools. We just had a camp down in georgia, they had to shut down the camp. Students of those affected were in this oneweek camp. They lasted for one day. These are the kinds of things we have to be careful about. Weelieve the only thing that can do is to get a National Plan and the Current Administration will not do it. Thats all the more reason put somebodyets in place to develop a National Plan. You cant have 50 different plans and think you are going to cure this problem. Thats the kind of states rights approach that led to john heiss sainthood, because had a different right in selma, alabama than the little town of troy where he grew up. Then one would have in other states in the union. Not in South Carolina, but other states in the union. We cant have a 50 state approach to this. ,here needs to be one unified coordinated, comprehensive plan and it requires leadership. I spoke earlier about leadership being done by precept and example. It cant just be precepts. When i got my first administrative job as a 25yearold in charleston, South Carolina i was stopped in a restaurant and he said i have been watching you, im going to tell you something. You have these leadership positions. Just remember, leadership is as leadership does. I have never forgotten that. Leadership is as leadership does. It, but asexpress you do. That is our problem. Well, picking up on that. Let me turn to leadership at the national level. Important your voice and your support for Vice President biden has been in terms of moving him into the clear front runner position, and as we go into the national there wasin november, an article in the New York Times the sunday before about the circle of advisers around Vice President biden, and you made the observation that you get letters and telephone calls from people saying this is what biden needs to do, this is what you need to tell biden to do, but that you dont tell him any of that. I am hoping that in this intimate group you will tell us what you do actually tell biden, and maybe you will tell us who the vp is going to be. [laughter] rep. Clyburn good try. I dont tell him what to do. Publicly that one of the reasons my wife and i stayed married for 58 years is because she always offered suggestions. She never told me what i must do. She told me what i should do. I might have interpreted the should as a must, but the fact of the matter is i should let the Vice President i share with the Vice President my thoughts when he asks for them. I have never called him and volunteered anything area anything. Aboutwants to hear more what i said, he has my number and i will talk to him. Allow our have to leaders to do that which their hearts and their heads guide them to do. I have said to him and the public, that when it comes to a , he should allow the vetting and the polling to instruct him. Once he gets that kind of instruction, he should apply his head and his heart to the process. That willfind someone complement him as a candidate. A he its impact calls it simpatico. Whatever it is i think you should be allowed freedom without any pressure from me or anybody else to make that decision. He is the one that is going to have to live with that. Lednt know exactly what john mccain to making the decision he made, but i have read enough about it since the no that it was not since to know that it was not long before he regretted it. He made the decision and it cost him dearly, though i dont think he would have won the election anyway. Thefact of the matter is vetting that should have been done before the announcement did until theplace campaign was going on and by that time it was too late. These are the kinds of past experiences i think folks informed byee and that vetting in the polling. We all recognize this is a very important election. That brings me back to what you were touching on earlier, how worried are you about voting . Do you feel that we are going to be able to have fair and open elections . That we are going to be able, in the covid crisis, to get people safely to the polls or do the kind of mail in, absentee voting that might be indicated . How worried should we be . Rep. Clyburn i am very worried. I think that the country has allowed i