It's no secret that Democrats, including President Joe Biden himself, talked a big talk about how "democracy is on the line" and "MAGA Republicans" were supposedly a threat to democracy. This is even more so noteworthy given that that tactic may have worked in the Democrats' favor for these disappointing midterm elections, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) pointed out, though he did also emphasize he found the strategy "despicable." Biden wasn't the only one using that strategy, and there were even those who came up with worse claims and comparisons than he did.
That would be House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and his repeated ranting comparisons about Nazi Germany. While we're talking about Biden and Clyburn together, let's not forget that Clyburn was responsible for boosting Biden in South Carolina during the 2020 presidential primary. That proved pivotal.
Earlier this month, as Matt highlighted, Clyburn spoke to Fox News shortly after Biden yet another fear-mongering speech.
"This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, when it elected a chancellor that then co-opted the media," he said. "This past president called the press the enemy of the people. That is a bunch of crap. And that is what's going on in this country."
And he further stood by Biden's remarks, too, in that Fox News interview.
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Though the South Carolina Democrat decried the right's "demonization" of Nancy Pelosi that he says is to blame for the attack, Clyburn doesn't see Biden's frequent vilification of "ultra-MAGA Republicans" as equivalent.
The president's harsh rhetoric of Trump supporters is entirely different, according to Clyburn, because Biden is directing his attacks at a "philosophy" and not an individual.
...
Clyburn went on to suggest that the choice between Democrats and Republicans is whether to vote for democracy or autocracy, echoing President Biden's Wednesday night speech.
"The question is," Clyburn said, "are we going to have a society that everyone can participate in? Or are we going to have an autocracy?"
Clyburn didn't learn his lesson about how egregious making comparisons to Nazi Germany are. In fact, he ended up outdoing himself when he returned to Fox News for the most recent episode of "Fox News Sunday."
"Congressman, you've repeatedly made comments about Hitler, about Nazism, about Germany in the 1930s in recent years," host Shannon Bream reminded him. "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."
Clyburn not only stood by his comments, but assured her he had the support from many Jews, including when it comes to his comments. Of Jews in his district, Clyburn offered "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," as he then went on to "discuss the facts of what's going on here," which was, as he claimed it "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."
The top Democrat doubled down on his comparisons to Nazi Germany, offering he taught history to justify his examples of how "what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany, in Italy."
Clyburn did acknowledge later in the segment, when being read a direct quote of his by Bream, that he misspoke when saying "But losing this democracy could very well be the end of the world," that he misspoke.
Such acknowledgment doesn't exactly make the Nazi Germany connections even better, though. It almost makes them more unnecessary, to put it politely.
Criticism of Clyburn's parallels certainly came, including from CNN's Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza. "This Democratic leader just broke the first rule of politics," Cillizza wrote in his Monday headline.
He began his piece by highlighting "Rule No. 1 of politics goes like this: Don’t compare anything to Nazi Germany. Just don’t." He doubled down again on this in his conclusion, writing "But let’s stop making the Nazi Germany comparison. For all of our sakes."
That Cillizza did still wring his hands about how "that doesn’t mean, however, that democracy is not under real threat. It is," he wrote, going on to lament how "There are people who deny that the 2020 election was free and fair," as Biden and Clyburn did. That he agrees with Clyburn on that, though almost makes his criticism more worthwhile.
While Clyburn listen? He's shown he can acknowledge when he misspoke, but that he mentioned the parallels in multiple interviews with Fox News doesn't signify that he'll walk away from them just because it's objectively not a good idea to make them.
Biden himself doubled down on his agenda as Katie highlighted about Wednesday's address, during which he said it was a "good night" for Democrats. "We're just getting started," Biden said. "I'm not going to change direction."
BIDEN: "It was a good day, I think, for democracy..."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 9, 2022
*coughs*
"Excuse me, I have a little horse." pic.twitter.com/ZalzymdxvN
Biden on January 6th: "Nothing like this has happened since the Civil War. I don't want to exaggerate, but literally. Nothing like this has happened since the Civil War." pic.twitter.com/qgNF7k0A5K
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 9, 2022
Biden says he's going to "see to it" that he unites the country.
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) November 9, 2022
He spent the first year of his administration dividing Americans against the unvaccinated, then the second year declaring war on Republicans.
Not everyone was on board with such a relief, though. Ari Berman with Mother Jones hadn't had enough of the worrying though. "A Democracy Crisis Was Averted. But Gerrymandering Could Still Save the GOP," read his Wednesday headline. For all of his talk of gerrymandering, it's stunning that he doesn't address New York's own gerrymandering process, which got thrown out by the courts. This is Mother Jones after all, though.
