Do congressional Democrats live in a bubble of some kind, or do they simply ignore the facts while bleating out their version of an alternative reality? They’re in complete denial about the Trump economy and refuse to give the President any credit whatsoever for the great economic and unemployment numbers. Be sure to check out the quote in bold below for direct evidence of that!
The latest example is House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), who was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Tuesday afternoon. Here are excerpts from that astounding Q&A:
Cavuto: … Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s lead is shrinking in South Carolina. The former vice president is hoping that the first primary in the south will be his firewall after flaming out in Iowa and New Hampshire. To a very influential South Carolina Democrat – one whom Democrat candidates would no doubt covet his support – I’m talking about the House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC). So let me ask you, Congressman, if Joe Biden fails to win South Carolina, is he done?
Clyburn: Well, I would not say that. I do remember in 1992 … Bill Clinton … he failed in several contests and ended up the nominee. [Cavuto: He lost 15 of the first 19 contests.] I’m a great student of history, and I think anything that’s happened before can happen again. But I would say, he would be in a very precarious situation if that were to be the case [that he lost South Carolina].
Me: Well, of course Clyburn’s comparison of the tired and gaffe-prone septuagenarian Joe Biden to the young, vigorous and slick-tongued 1992 version of Bill Clinton is absurd. Biden generates ZERO enthusiasm – and never will. He’s damaged goods, yet Clyburn keeps whistling past the grave about him.
Cavuto: He’s got to command a lot of that African-American vote, and there are concerns that it’s slipping. When you talk to him, is he worried about that?
Clyburn: Well, I have not been talking to him a lot. I have spoken with him on more than one occasion. He was here for my big fish fry in Orangeburg a few weeks ago. I don’t know that he’s worried. I think he like any candidate will be concerned, but I hear the same from other candidates as well.
Me: Unwittingly, Clyburn just told us everything we need to know about Biden’s campaign. In the state that Biden has been publicly calling his “firewall,” he has not been in regular contact with arguably the most powerful black Democrat in the state leading up to the South Carolina primary!
Cavuto: … As you’ve been seeing with Michael Bloomberg who has been jumping in the polls on the heels of his very expensive and pricey ad buys … likely to toll $400 million by the end of next month if you included $125 million slated for Super Tuesday ads… If he were the nominee, could you, would you back him?
Clyburn: Well, I’m going to back whoever our nominee is. Absolutely.
Me: No surprise there. Given the widespread Trump Derangement Syndrome in the Democrat Party, Democrats would support the Devil himself against President Trump this year if it got down that that choice.
Cavuto: Even with the things he has said about African-Americans? Does that bother you?
Clyburn: Well, not as much as what Trump has said about African-Americans. Any time that I go to the polls, I’m considering positives and negatives on all candidates. And I’ve tried to go with the one whose positives outweigh the negatives.
Me: Bloomberg’s generalizations about young African males (caught on video) were disgraceful, and yet Clyburn somehow believes that President Trump has made worse comments? I wish he – and other Democrats – would stop taking the President’s comments out of context and explain to us EXACTLY what rhetoric of his they find offensive. Nothing but claims and assertions.
Cavuto: Whether you like his style and tweets or not, he {President Trump] has delivered the goods for a lot of African-Americans, has he not? With record low unemployment levels for one group after another. You don’t’ think that’s constructive?
Clyburn: Come on. No. No, because it’s not true. I’m saying that African-American unemployment is not the lowest it’s ever been – unless you count slavery. We were fully employed during slavery, so it all depends on how you measure this up …
Me: This is possibly the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard a Democrat say – and there have been a lot of head-scratchers, e.g., “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.” He’s seriously claiming that black unemployment was lower in the days of slavery just to avoid giving President Trump credit for record low black unemployment? The TDS is strong in this one, Yoda.
Cavuto: I’m sorry, sir, it’s at 52-year lows, it has been trending down under Democrat and Republican administration. It’s the lowest in this cycle with this president. Do you give him any credit for that?
Clyburn: I give him credit for continuing what we laid the foundations for back in 2009. Remember, I was there; I was part of the leadership. I was around that table every day. I’m the one that put in the 10|20|30 Formula for rural communities. That was my proposal. It’s now been spread by the Republicans – and I give Speaker Ryan credit from moving it from four counties up to 17 counties. That’s what we did back in 2009.
Me: This is the Democrat narrative – that the Trump economy is just a continuation of the Obama economy. Nothing could be further from the truth, and he knows it! The record tax and regulatory cuts transformed the economic engine of the US. While Obama shackled the oil and gas industry, President Trump deregulated it to the point that we are not the world’s number one oil and gas producer! We’ll get to a further direct comparison of the numbers in response to set of comments by him below.
Cavuto: You’re saying that there here’s nothing this president has done to improve that process because it is a pace that has [continued] under this president. You were right to say that it’s an improving unemployment picture … all groups under Barack Obama. But many economists of all political stripes say that the President took and accelerated it. You disagree?
Clyburn: He continued it. I don’t think it’s been accelerated at all. If you look where we were in 2009, and where we were when Trump became president, the movement from 2009 to that part was much greater than the movement from the time [Trump] took over to now. He continued it.
Me: Democrats would like us to compare the last three years of an 8-year presidency to the first three years of a new presidency as an apples-to-apple comparison. Nope; it doesn’t work that way. President Trump “continued it”? That notion is thoroughly debunked in this article. Of particular note in that article is the fact that Obama’s Dept of Labor changed the unemployment and labor participation statistics to bolster his numbers. In addition, the article cited a Harvard study that determined that 90% of the jobs created under the Obama economy were part-time or short-term contract jobs, not the full-time job statistics reported by the Trump Dept of Labor.
Cavuto: We were coming out of a financial meltdown at that time, and obviously the marked improvement is noteworthy, but doesn’t that actually foster the argument that under this President in good times, he’s made them even better? That’s a little startling, isn’t it?
Clyburn: Well, it’s not startling to me if you look at tax cuts … I mean record tax cuts … and we are having an economy that’s built on tax cuts, not job creation. Job creation to me means not having to do two and three menial jobs in order to make do.
Me: Clyburn demonstrates that he knows nothing about basic economics and the impact of fiscal policy (tax cuts) on economic growth. He’s a Keynesian who believes that government is the fount of all economic growth. And what on earth does he mean when he says that “we are having an economy that’s not built on job creation”? That’s pure gobbledygook. Finally, when he’s talking about people having to hold down multiple menial jobs in order to make a living, he’s referring to the Obama economy, not the Trump economy, and he knows it.
Cavuto: That’s going to be a tough sell in a year like this, right? I just wonder. People are going to step back … you heard about the 90% of Americans who are feeling pretty good about where things are … whether they credit the President for that is anyone’s guess … but they’re happy with the way things are going, including African-Americans. You don’t agree with that?
Clyburn: No, I don’t because I go to church with African-Americans. I live with African-Americans. I’m the father of African-Americans.
Cavuto: You don’t think that more African-Americans will vote for the President than will generally give him credit?
Clyburn: Absolutely not. That 13% he got of [African-American] male voters before … 8% total of African-Americans before … he will never get to that point this year. Absolutely not.
Me: Yes, he’s living in a bubble and ignoring reality. Herman Cain was on Fox News on Monday citing four different polls showing African-American support for President Trump hovering around 34%. And Clyburn doesn’t think the President will even come close to the overall 8% of African-American support that he got in 2016 when his economy has delivered the lowest African-American unemployment ever recorded? Please.
That was the end of the Q&A. I had to listen to parts of Clyburn’s responses two or three times to make sure that I heard him right. I’ll give him credit for the ability to lie without breaking a sweat, but that’s about all.
The end.
