Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said during an interview on Sunday that those who do not vote against so-called “election deniers” are Nazis.
Clyburn made the remarks during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream when asked about remarks that he made last week.
“This is what happens in a country that follows what happened in Germany in the early ’30s,” Clyburn said last week. “This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, elected a chancellor who then co-opted their media, and that’s what’s going on in this country. That is what will lead to the destruction of this democracy.”
After Bream played the clip, she said to Clyburn, “Congressman, you’ve repeatedly made comments about Hitler, about Nazism, about Germany in the 1930s in recent years. You’ve gotten a lot of pushback from that from Jewish organizations and others who say it belittles the suffering of the Holocaust, of the millions who were lost.”
After a brief back-and-forth, Bream asked, “Are voters, though, out there listening to this message to infer from what you’re saying that if they don’t vote for Democrats in this election, that they are somehow supporting something akin to the rise of Hitler?”
“No, if they don’t vote against election deniers, if they don’t vote against liars, people who will lie, know full well they’re lying, we all know they are lying,” Clyburn responded. “This was cleanest election in the history of the country, Donald Trump’s own appointee said it was the cleanest in the history of the country. So, if they are lying, they’re denying, they’re trying to delete, they’re trying to nullify our votes, vote against that foolishness.”
WATCH:
JIM CLYBURN: “What I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany.”
“If [voters] don’t vote for Democrats…they are somehow supporting something akin to Hitler?”
CLYBURN: “If they don’t vote against [election] deniers” pic.twitter.com/nGAOagvTbT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 6, 2022
TRANSCRIPT:
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Joining me now, South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the third ranking Democrat in the House.
Congressman, welcome back to “FOX News Sunday”.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Thank you very much for having me back.
BREAM: I want to start here with some comments you made just a couple of days ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLYBURN: This is what happens in a country that follows what happened in Germany in the early ’30s. This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, elected a chancellor who then co-opted their media, and that’s what’s going on in this country. That is what will lead to the destruction of this democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Congressman, you’ve repeatedly made comments about Hitler, about Nazism, about Germany in the 1930s in recent years. You’ve gotten a lot of pushback from that from Jewish organizations and others who say it belittles the suffering of the Holocaust, of the millions who were lost.
Your response?
CLYBURN: I’ve talked to many Jews. We have many Jews in my congressional district, and they are very — supporters of mine. They note that this is a stuff that causes those kinds of deterioration in democracy. This is not anything about whether — how difficult it was, I talk about slavery and how difficult it was.
But that — to discuss the facts of what’s going on here, election deniers setting up positions (ph) by which little (ph) committees by governors can overturn the results of election, to call the press the enemy of the people, to co-op evangelicals — and I grew up in a Christian faith, in a parsonage, born and raised in a parsonage.
I know a whole lot about religion, and I know there’s always an attempt to co-op religions and that is going on here.
BREAM: OK, Congressman —
CLYBURN: And people want to deny it, that’s fine.
BREAM: OK, but —
CLYBURN: But the facts are very clear. I studied history all of my life.
BREAM: OK.
CLYBURN: I taught history and I’m telling you what I see here are parallels to what the history was —
BREAM: OK.
CLYBURN: — in this world back in the 1930s —
BREAM: So, Congressman, then —
CLYBURN: — in Germany, in Italy.
BREAM: Okay. Are voters, though, out there listening to this message to infer from what you’re saying that if they don’t vote for Democrats in this election, that they are somehow supporting something akin to the rise of Hitler?
CLYBURN: No, if they don’t vote against election deniers, if they don’t vote against liars, people who will lie, know full well they’re lying, we all know they are lying.
This was cleanest election in the history of the country, Donald Trump’s own appointee said it was the cleanest in the history of the country.
So, if they are lying, they’re denying, they’re trying to delete, they’re trying to nullify our votes, vote against that foolishness.
BREAM: Okay. So, Congressman, to look back on some conversations about election deniers, we’ve talked about on the show that Democrats have spent more than $40 million making sure that some of those people got through primary — GOP primaries so that they then could face off in the general election. Do Democrats bear some responsibility for putting those people now on the ballot?
CLYBURN: No, we didn’t put them up. Those people —
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: But you spent millions to get them there.
CLYBURN: I’m sorry?
BREAM: But you spent millions to get many of them there, where they are in the general election ballot.
CLYBURN: Well, you know, I read about that. I believe that you should always try to best position yourself to win in the general election. I’m not a proponent of that process. I understand it takes place on both sides. But I’m just not a proponent of it, but I can understand it.
BREAM: OK. So, I want to play a little bit more language over the last week from Democrats about what is at stake in this election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona, that’s not an exaggeration. That is a fact.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But, there is something else at stake, democracy itself.
CLYBURN: But losing this democracy could very well be the end of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: OK. So, were you asking voters to set aside what they feel about the economy?
Because “The Wall Street Journal’s” Kimberley Strassel has this piece: Voters have sat through this apocalyptic movie many times now, and know its anticlimactic ending. Besides they’re busy searching for spare change to cover their rising grocery bills.
So, set aside economy and worries about crime which are at the top of all of voter polls about what they’re worried about, and instead vote for you where the world is ending?
CLYBURN: Nobody is saying the world is ending. The world did not end —
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: You did say there, though, that it could be the end of the world.
CLYBURN: No, democracy will be ending. The world will continue to exist. The world was here before Hitler and the world was here after Hitler. That’s what we’re saying.
No, the world will not end. The kind of world we have, the kind of country we have. We’ve got to decide how do we want to exist in this world, and that’s what we’re talking about.
This hyperbole is not part of what we’re saying here. We’re talking about what kind of country we have and what kind of world we have.
BREAM: OK. Congressman, just to be clear, though, I want to read your quote. It says: But losing this democracy could very well be the end of the world. That’s a direct quote from you.
CLYBURN: End of the world, come on.
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: Well, a lot of voters feel that way, when you say that. They think — they have the same reaction.
CLYBURN: Well, if that’s a quote from me, it — I misspoke. It won’t end the world.
BREAM: OK.
CLYBURN: No, I have no idea —
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: OK. Well, that’s good news for everyone heading to the ballot boxes on Tuesday. Finally —
CLYBURN: But having (AUDIO GAP) one to teach history, we live in worlds that we do not like. My forbearers lived through slavery. They did not like that existence for 250 years. But it was not the end of the world, it may be the end the world as they would have it, but it will not end the world.
BREAM: All right. Well, we are reassured to hear you say that, sir. We thank you for making time for us, Congressman Clyburn. Always good to talk with you.
CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me.
Related: Clyburn Compares America To 1930’s Germany In Latest Example Of Democrats’ Alarmist Rhetoric
