CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Sheila Jackson Lee

Interview

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I want to bring in Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. She is a Democrat from Texas and a surrogate for the Biden campaign. Congresswoman Jackson Lee, you're in Houston, Texas, right now. I want to know, what are you seeing on the ground? And are you satisfied with what the governor is doing, rolling back some of the state's reopening at this point?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): First of all, let me thank all our first responders. It's good to be with you, nurses, doctors, and techs, and people who are just stretching themselves to the very end all over the state. And I offer to them our greatest appreciation.

Abby, with 10,000 patients with our deadliest day just about two days ago in terms of death, we know that Texas opened too early, and we are now experiencing and suffering the impact of that. So frankly, what we're doing now is trying to patch. And we express our appreciation for what is being done. I spent two days ago a long time on a call with the FEMA director after I polled hospitals who needed everything you could imagine -- ICU doctors, ICU nurses, respiratory techs, and others, and begged them to send additional medical staff here.

In the last two days, we got 2,400 nurses, which I hope are spread not only to large hospitals and small. And then of course we have the defense disaster medical teams. That's important. I think we have to ask the real question, how do we get in front of COVID-19, particularly as relates to stopping the community spread. And I believe we actually need a stay-at-home order that can be determined by science and phasing out next time of the opening.

Medical professionals cannot get their hands around how many people are getting sick, how many people are sick at home, how many people are positive, until we have the stopping of the community spread and using of contact tracing. So that's where we are.

[10:45:07] We needed a strategic plan by the president of the United States. We never got it. He has abandoned COVID-19. He tells us it is going to puff away, and it has not. And so we really need real work, and we're doing real work down here in Houston. The Biden plan, of course, is strategic.

PHILLIP: I'll ask you, as you know, this is a dual crisis. And a stay- at-home order being put back in place in Texas and elsewhere is creating a huge economic crisis. Joe Biden, who you're a surrogate for, gave a major economic speech this past week. But are you comfortable, do you feel like he is out on the trail enough, given the environment, given the state of crisis that the country is both economically and in terms of this coronavirus pandemic?

LEE: Abby, out in the community we say we feel you. I can tell you that we feel Joe Biden. We feel his heart, we feel his intellect and passion, and we feel the ability for him to unify. And he's doing that with his economic plan. He is talking about investing in the middle class, working families. He's talking about $300 billion as relates to research and $400 billion to create jobs through procurement and buy back America, green jobs.

We know that if we pass the Heroes Act, which Joe Biden would have signed by now, we can take care of these people that may have to be in a stay-at-home situation. But Joe Biden is looking to ensure everyone has a $15 an hour job, that if they're working hourly wage jobs, that that is the minimum that they would get. Joe Biden knows that the economy has knocked us to our knees at this point. He's prepared to have us stand up.

And he is unifying the party to ensure that all voices are heard. And frankly, I believe if Joe Biden was president right now, we would have had a strategic plan for COVID-19. We may not have had to return back as many cities are doing, from Atlanta to Miami is considering that and others. We need this governor to direct to the local authorities their own individual determination as to whether they need stay at home order based on science.

What we have now is chaos and we have lives that are being lost. I don't want any more lives to be lost. And I know that Joe Biden, if president, would not have us in this predicament as relates to COVID- 19. But I'm inspired that he will have an effective economic policy that will get us out in flying colors.

PHILLIP: I do want to ask you quickly about polling. Obviously, a lot of polling shows the American public not happy with how President Trump has been handling the crisis, and that Biden in this head-to- head is leading Trump in many of these polls. But there are some questions from Democrats about whether you can trust them. Do you trust the polls? And there are some Democrats who say Biden maybe should be thinking bigger, thinking to states like Texas, your home state. Is Texas a battleground state? And do you think the numbers are reflecting where you think the race actually is?

LEE: I've heard that Texas is a battleground state. We are a battleground state. We were almost a battleground state with the Senate race in 2018. We have grown now. We're younger, we're more diverse. We view the world in different perspective.

And I don't think Vice President Biden takes poll numbers and takes anything for granted. I think he is energized by the fact that there are greater opportunities in many more states that he has the opportunity of playing in successfully and winning. We don't want to skate by. We're not looking to stand on numbers. We want voters. And we know that votes count, not numbers. All of us are energized. I'm excited about Texas. Our last numbers show that we were dead even. And I can't even capture how excited both the Democratic Party is, but really independents and Republicans in Texas excited about voting for Joe Biden.

He is bringing the big tent into play, and people of every persuasion feel that they have a home if Joe Biden wins as president of the United States. And we're going to run like we've never run before. We're going to encourage voting like you never voted before so that we can have a victory in November, 2020, not a poll victory, but a real victory with voters voting for Vice President Joe Biden.

PHILLIP: I know Democrats have been trying to get Texas into the battleground category for a long time. Thank you, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, thanks for being here this morning.

LEE: Thank you for having me. Have a good day.

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