House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn has become one of the latest targets for Donald Trump on Twitter. During Congressional panels with medical professionals this week, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump called out Clyburn on social media. But the congressman appeared on CNN Sunday with some heavy criticism of Trump that might feed the flames from The White House.
While Trump’s attacks came on the topic of COVID-19 and the United States testing capabilities up to this point, Clyburn was affected more by Trump’s floating of a potential election delay. Echoing what Michael Cohen said during his testimony in front of Congress, Clyburn fears that the president’s comments hint that he won’t give up The White House if he loses the election. He makes some very fiery comparisons too.
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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. If we had no testing, or bad testing, we would show very few CASES..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2020
“I feel very strongly that Trump is Mussolini, Putin and Hitler… I don’t think he plans to leave the White House,” Clyburn told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to hold onto the office.”
Clyburn continued adding that Trump is attempting to put a “cloud over the election” and using “strong-arm tactics” to do so, similar to dictators. It’s hard to disagree after seeing the federal response to the coronavirus and protests across the country supporting Black Lives Matter. Comparisons were made between Hong Kong and Portland, showing similar tactics and violence in the Chinese city.
Delaying the election is also another idea mirrored in China, who announced delays in Hong Kong’s election due to COVID-19 only a day after Trump tweeted about similar delays in the United States.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump wrote Thursday.
“I don’t think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office,” Democratic Rep. James Clyburn says about Pres. Trump. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/QUo8jux5kx
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 2, 2020
There is little evidence to support these claims and absentee voting has been confirmed to be the same process that all Americans would use. Still, Trump and his supporters have railed against it, calling it an inroad to fraud which has no evidence to support it. Several have tried to echo the president’s statements, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claiming that states are “just not equipped to handle” an entirely mail-driven election.
Standing in contrast is Sen. Mitch McConnell, who claims that states should decide on their own how to hold elections in their states. This isn’t perfect by any means, but it also doesn’t feed the narrative that the U.S. would delay their vote. As he added, the United States has held an election on time since its inception.
“Never in the history of the country, through wars and depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time, and we’ll find a way to do that again this November 3,” he said according to USA Today.
