Few politicians, outdoors of the Biden household, invested as a lot in Joe Biden’s 2020 run for the presidency as South Carolina congressman James Clyburn.
Biden got here to South Carolina along with his marketing campaign on life assist. He completed outdoors the highest three in Iowa and New Hampshire. He was having hassle securing Black voters. With out the assist of that giant voting bloc, he wouldn’t win South Carolina. A defeat there would’ve just about railroaded Biden’s presidential ambitions for a 3rd time.
Biden wished — wanted — Clyburn’s endorsement. His assist was key to profitable over Black voters. In return, Clyburn wished — required — a assure: Nominate the primary Black girl to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom and announce it earlier than the first. Biden made the vow, Clyburn made the endorsement, and South Carolina’s Black voters coalesced round Biden, sending him on a path to the nomination.
And two years later, Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated to the excessive court docket. All thanks largely to Clyburn.
So, it comes as no shock that in the case of assessing Biden’s president, Clyburn might be grading on a steep curve. However even then, his feedback in August evaluating Biden to Martin Luther King Jr. went nicely past the same old partisan puffery. Only a few agreed with the congressman then, and now, with Biden’s final day as president on Monday coinciding with the nationwide vacation remembering the slain civil rights icon, the comparability is resurfacing. And, judging by social media, time hasn’t appeared to alter any minds.
Right here’s the remark in full, from an interview of Clyburn on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”:
“COVID-19 opened up some fault strains on this nation, and we’re about repairing them,” he stated. “That’s what Joe Biden did. And I believe that persons are going to take a look at Joe Biden a lot the best way we have a look at Martin Luther King Jr. when he stated in his speech, ‘It doesn’t matter how lengthy you reside, however how nicely you reside.’”
In fact, the county is simply as polarized, if no more so, than it was 4 years in the past. Evaluating a steadfast man of peace to a president who supported Israel’s relentless bombing marketing campaign in Palestine additionally appears a bit off. And Biden is greater than twice as previous as King was when he died by an murderer’s bullet in 1968.
“Uncontrolled Democratic Social gathering worship. Clyburn needs to be embarrassed,” wrote one man on X.
“That’s ludicrous,” chimed one other.
On this concern, the bipartisanship was overwhelming.
“This could’t be actual,” added one other incredulous X person.
Clyburn, I believe you want a cognitive check,’ wrote an X person. “I imagine Time period Limits have been written for you.”
Many have been a lot uglier.
This isn’t the primary time Clyburn has been below fireplace for his admiration for Biden. In 2020, the African-American Congressman confronted backlash for declaring Biden an “honorary Black man.”
Maybe Clyburn ought to intention slightly decrease subsequent time. Possibly Harry Truman?
