Jim Clyburn: Time for Democrats to ‘consolidate’ behind Biden, not ‘Medicare for All’
U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn says he’s “not trying to stop anybody” from becoming the Democratic nominee for president in 2020, including Bernie Sanders.
But the South Carolina Democrat who came out in support of former Vice President Joe Biden last week — just days before the state’s competitive primary election — said Monday it was time for the party to “consolidate” behind Biden, warning that a failure to nominate him could deliver President Donald Trump another four years in office and hand back control of the House to Republicans.
In an interview Monday with McClatchy, Clyburn described Biden as “the best candidate for our caucus,” which retook the U.S. House majority in 2018 thanks to a few dozen centrist Democrats who flipped Republican seats and now might have to run for reelection alongside a party standard-bearer who supports Medicare for All.
“With all due respect, everybody is talking about ‘the Squad this, and the Squad that,’” Clyburn said, referring to the nationally-recognized foursome of freshmen Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who conservatives are casting as the new faces of a “socialist” Democratic Party.
“These four women are fantastic congresswomen, very progressive, but they did not flip a single seat, so I don’t understand why people think this party should shift to their way of doing things and pick up Medicare for All. ... There is not a single person who put us in the majority who supports Medicare for All,” Clyburn continued.
“We would be stupid to say to them, ‘the hell with y’all, we’re going to go with these four people who didn’t flip no seats,’” Clyburn added, referring to the message that an embrace of a Medicare for All health care plan at the top of the ticket would send to moderate Democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar have endorsed Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, while Pressley has endorsed U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. There is increasing concern about either candidate alienating moderate voters in November and a narrative is emerging that an uptick in endorsements for Biden since the South Carolina primary is attributable to the party establishment seeking to edge out Sanders in particular.
But Clyburn, who said he thought Biden would have beat Trump in the 2016 general election had he been the Democratic nominee, insisted his effort to boost Biden now was not about diminishing Sanders, calling the self-described Democratic Socialist “my go-to guy in the Senate.”
On Monday, Clyburn was still riding high from his game-changing endorsement of Biden, which cemented his reputation as a state party kingmaker whose clout might even have broader reach than within the confines of the Palmetto State.
After failing to break through in the first three nominating contests of the primary season, the former vice president on Saturday won nearly half of the votes cast in South Carolina, with nearly half of the state’s voters also saying Clyburn’s endorsement influenced their pick. Clyburn was then dispatched to North Carolina and planned to stump in Virginia for Biden, too.
Though Clyburn had known his endorsement held some weight, he told McClatchy he was fully unprepared for just how influential his endorsement would be.
He was committed to keeping his favored candidate to himself so as not to “short circuit” the South Carolina primary, promising he would not endorse until at least after the Feb 25 Charleston debate. Clyburn conceded, however, that he wished he had been able to endorse sooner in the process, which might have helped position Biden to win overwhelmingly in the 14 “Super Tuesday” primaries on March 3.
Biden might struggle in this next round of contests because so many voters have already cast ballots for other candidates prior to the strong South Carolina showing.
Still, Clyburn said, “I think his record won” South Carolina.
“All I did was remind people of the fact that some folks tend to confuse goodness with weakness,” he said.
From this point on, Clyburn said he planned to be helpful to the Biden campaign however he could. In addition to North Carolina and Virginia visits, he has been busy doing interviews in Super Tuesday media markets and recording robocalls on Biden’s behalf.
Months ago, Clyburn said he was among those who had been urging Biden, a longtime friend, to speak openly about his struggles with stuttering, a lifelong disability which many voters have wrongly misinterpreted as the presidential candidate being an insecure public speaker.
If Biden wins the nomination, Clyburn said he was prepared to advise on everything from a vice presidential pick to Supreme Court appointments. He said he wouldn’t be actively lobbying his congressional colleagues to support Biden through the primary season and didn’t have any opinion on whether another party kingmaker, President Barack Obama, should soon weigh in on Biden’s behalf.
“I think his endorsement now would hurt the party,” Clyburn explained. “All those people who are still in the race deserve to be respected.”
However, Clyburn added, “you might say I read somewhere (Obama) called Joe on Saturday night to congratulate him. That might say something. ... That indicates something to me: that Barack Obama is favorable towards Joe Biden’s candidacy.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Jim Clyburn: Time for Democrats to ‘consolidate’ behind Biden, not ‘Medicare for All’."
