James Clyburn Just Said What About Republicans?

Amy Curtis | January 20, 2026 4:15 PM

Yesterday was a banner day for "The View." They decided to mark Martin Luther King Day by letting Pam Grier lie about lynchings in Columbus, Ohio and by having Rep. James Clyburn on the show to say the Republican Party is going to bring back slavery.

Jim Clyburn casually tells the ladies of The View that Republicans are trying to…

…bring back slavery?!

What on earth!? pic.twitter.com/JZRPNeq5ON
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) January 20, 2026

"I used to teach history," Clyburn said. "I used to tell my students all the time, anything that's happened before can happen again."

"They were trying to set up a process that would allow this country to return to what it was in 1876, when the election got thrown into the House of Representatives, and they were able to overturn what Abraham Lincoln and the Congress had done successfully, getting rid of slavery. That is what they are attempting to do today."

If Clyburn remembered the history he supposedly taught, he would know that Samuel Tilden ended the night with 184 electoral votes, just one shy of the 185 threshold needed to claim victory. At the same time, 20 electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were contested because both parties submitted conflicting slates of electors. The Electoral Commission was formed, which awarded the 20 votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, giving him the 185 votes to secure the win. In exchange, the Democrats agreed to the Compromise of 1877, in which they accepted the Hayes presidency in return for federal troops being removed from Southern states where they were enforcing Reconstruction. This allowed Southern Democrats to regain control of state governments.