Clyburn responds to Trump attack: ‘I simply laid out the facts. The president has his opinions’

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) responded Sunday to a tweet by President Trump attacking him and defending the federal response to the coronavirus, saying the president “has his opinions.”

“I simply laid out the facts. The president has his opinions,” Clyburn said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I believe very strongly that we do not have the kind of national leadership we need from this White House. There needs to be one coordinated, concerted effort to bring our attention to this problem nationally.”

“This piecemeal approach that we have — Dr. [Deborah] Birx saying one thing, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, who I believe in very much, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director] Dr. [Robert] Redfield … I don’t find myself in disagreement with any one of them, but they are talking about facts, and this president is putting forth a political agenda,” Clyburn added.

Trump on Friday tweeted during Fauci’s testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as Clyburn questioned the infectious disease expert on the failures in the U.S. to contain the pandemic to the same extent as Europe.

“Somebody please tell Congressman Clyburn, who 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,” Trump tweeted.

“Face the Nation” guest host John Dickerson also asked Clyburn, a former public school teacher, whether he would return to in-person schooling in the fall.

“Absolutely not, not until we have a national plan within the school districts,” Clyburn responded. “We can’t have children that are going to school when we have not laid out a plan for there to be social distancing, for everyone to be required to wear a mask.”

Would @WhipClyburn – a former schoolteacher – return to the classroom right now? “Absolutely not,” he says. pic.twitter.com/6RNQHKyE5S

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 2, 2020