Days after President Donald Trump threw out the idea of delaying the general election until it is safe for Americans to vote in person, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) is sharing his elections fears.
Clyburn participated in a virtual event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, where he shared his concern that Trump will “try not to have this election at all and try to install himself as a strong man.”
“You know there’s one thing about turning 80 … you can say what you feel like saying,” Clyburn said. “I don’t think this man plans to have an election. I think this man thinks he’s going to hoodwink the people of this country much the way that the people of Germany was hoodwinked back in the 1930s.”
“That’s what I’ve said, that’s what I believe,” he added.
Watch the video below:
.@WhipClyburn: "I don't think this man plans to have an election. I think this man thinks he's going to hoodwink the people of this country much the way that the people of Germany was hoodwinked back in the 1930s."
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 3, 2020
Full video here: https://t.co/wQXVZ5HbxN pic.twitter.com/ocspydEJhL
Clyburn’s comments come after he predicted that Trump would try to stay in the White House if he lost the election on November 3, as IJR reported.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Clyburn said, “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.”
Despite concerns that Trump may try to delay the election, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said, “[Trump] has not looked at delaying any election.”
Instead, he argued the tweet was designed to bring attention to what he claimed is the problem of vastly expanding mail-in voting ahead of the general election.
“It is responsible for him to say that if we try to go to 100% universal mail-in ballots, will we have an election result on November 3? No, I would suggest that we wouldn’t even have it on January 3,” he said.
