Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

All hail the time of the bunny!

One way or another, he’s a liar.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“Alexa, change the president.”

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Sunday Evening Wind-Down Open Thread: Rep. Clyburn Does Not Have Time for This… Nonsense

Sunday Evening Wind-Down Open Thread: Rep. Clyburn Does Not Have Time for This… Nonsense

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Figured I’d share this, since the twitter MAGAts are triggered by it. The Politico podcaster does his best, but Jim Clyburn does not take bait from fools — “The Man Who Saved Biden’s 2020 Campaign Lets Loose”:

Rep. Jim Clyburn doesn’t believe the polls.

Despite a growing list of surveys that show Donald Trump gaining with Black voters, the longtime South Carolina Democrat and co-chair of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, dismissed suggestions Democrats should be concerned.

“Something is amiss with the polling,” he said in an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast. “Anybody who believes that Donald Trump will get 30 percent of the Black male vote or 12 percent of the Black female vote — I got a bridge down there on Johns Island I’ll sell you.”…

Let’s start with Donald Trump’s return to the Hill for the first time since Jan. 6. How did that feel?

Well, his being here prevented me from getting into my garage on time this morning. So that’s the story of my life — being disrupted by Donald Trump. But, other than that, I don’t feel anything…

Let’s talk about the South Carolina presidential primary. One of the great disappointments of there not being an open race on the Democratic side is we didn’t get a Clyburn fish fry this year. But the South Carolina primary was first. Remind us how that came about.

It came about because Joe Biden wanted South Carolina to be first.

But the fact of the matter is, I never asked for South Carolina to be first in the nation. I’ve always asked for South Carolina to be first in the South, and we were first in the South for years. And I jokingly said — I’m half-joking when I say this — I was a baseball player growing up, a pretty good baseball player, and I knew that the most important batter in the lineup is the fourth-place batter. The fourth-place batter is called the cleanup hitter. South Carolina was in fourth place. And I wanted to stay in fourth place…

Can you help us understand the decision, as you understand it, that Joe Biden made to run for reelection rather than retiring, and letting a primary happen to see who runs against Trump?

I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m sure you remember in 2020, privately, he did tell some people that he was only going to serve one term. His aides actually debated among themselves whether to make that a public pledge. They decided not to. And obviously he decided not to only serve once.

What do you think went into that decision? And did he talk to you about it in the run up to it?

No. All of what you just said is news to me. I didn’t know anything about what you just said. I do know that when he asked me my opinion, I said to him that I thought he should run. He didn’t tell me that he was thinking about one term. He did say in my presence and campaign more than once using the term “transitional,” that he was going to be a transitional president.

And sometimes he would talk about being a “bridge” back in 2020.

That’s right.

The bridge got a little longer though.

Absolutely. It doesn’t have to be a short bridge. It can be a long bridge. It doesn’t have to be a four-year transition, it can be an eight-year transition. And that’s what I said to him. I said, “Well let’s make this transition an eight-year transition.” Because we had to transition. We are transitioning…

So at the end of the day, this was the best way to go?

I think he was the best in 2020, and I think he is best today…

Do you buy this distinction between the upper-tier Midwest states versus the Sunbelt? And that Biden’s fortunes are a little more promising in the Midwest?

That may be true. I have not spent a whole lot of time on that. I’ve been spending time on Pennsylvania, Michigan, I’m getting ready to go to Wisconsin real soon. I really think that if we hold Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, we’ll be fine.

I have not done the numbers to see exactly what states will make up the required number of electoral votes. But I wouldn’t give up on North Carolina or Georgia, whatever the numbers are showing. Because I think the other side is not putting together a campaign to win. They’re trying to muddy the waters, suppress the vote, depress turnout on our side because I don’t think they can grow their numbers…

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    Tell it straight, Rep. Clyburn.  Rub it in their sycophantic faces (both the press and the GOP).  Their boy is a sundowning criminal who is destroying their party and making the national press show what clowns they truly are.

  3. 3.

    Bill Arnold

    J. Biden is absolutely better than Mr. D.J Trump.
    The demented Mr. Trump, today June 16 2024:

    HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE RADICAL LEFT DEGENERATES THAT ARE RAPIDLY BRINGING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO THIRD WORLD NATION STATUS WITH THEIR MANY ATTEMPTS AT TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR SACRED COURT SYSTEM INTO BREAKING TO THEIR VERY SICK AND DANGEROUS WILL. WE NEED STRENGTH AND LOYALTY TO OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS WONDERFUL CONSTITUTION. EVERYTHING WILL BE ON FULL DISPLAY COME NOVEMBER 5TH, 2024 – THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

  5. 5.

    Scout211

    I’ve never heard that story that Biden was planning to serve for only one term.  Has that been reported before and I missed it?  I guess I’m in good company, though, if Rep. Clyburn hadn’t heard it either.

  6. 6.

    PJ

    I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m sure you remember in 2020, privately, he did tell some people that he was only going to serve one term.

    Some reporters keep repeating that Biden said he would only serve one term, but I have never seen any citation from any source that he actually said this to anyone. At least this reporter acknowledges that Biden never made any public statement to that effect (and, in fact, prior to the election in 2020, he publicly denied that he would retire after one term.)

  10. 10.

    hueyplong

    • @Bill Arnold: The all caps appears to be a poor attempt to disguise the fact that there is no way Trump typed that.
    • Setting aside the fact that there are arguably real sentences, note the absence of exclamation points until the end.
  15. 15.

    Bill Arnold

    @hueyplong:
    Yeah, though I’m not sure it’s purely Scavino’s work. The “STRENGTH AND LOYALTY” is a bit over-the-top for him. The “EVERYTHING WILL BE ON FULL DISPLAY” is odd too.
    They have a new person (a woman) as well.
    Will poke at this more deeply.

  18. 18.

    smith

    @Baud: Speaking of the Post and its faded glory, tomorrow is the 52nd anniversary of the Watergate break-in. Seems like just yesterday we had a functioning media and a Republican party that believed that laws applied even to Republican presidents.

  19. 19.

    Scout211

    @Bill Arnold: They have a new person (a woman) as well.

    I forget her name but we learned at the trial that she is also the emotional support printer person.

    ETA: Natalie Harp

    Meet Trump’s ‘Human Printer’
    . . .

    Harp also helps manage Trump’s Truth Social media account and has taken over some of the duties from Trump’s former caddy-turned-senior-adviser Dan Scavino.

  23. 23.

    MinuteMan

    After Biden’s 2nd term, things ought to be in a more normal state with the Mango Magat gone and maybe a number of the problematic SCOTUS justices. Then we can have a more bare-knuckled presidential primary for Biden’s successor. Sadly, surviving past January 2025 is the only game in town right now.

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    @hueyplong: Maybe somebody has trained one of these Large Language Model AIs to output plausible Trump posts. The well-known tendency for LLMs to just make shit up would,in this case, be a feature rather than a bug.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:
    Last paragraph is also good:

    Because I think the other side is not putting together a campaign to win. They’re trying to muddy the waters, suppress the vote, depress turnout on our side because I don’t think they can grow their numbers…

    And the media is helping them.

  29. 29.

    RaflW

    I laughed: “[Trump] being here prevented me from getting into my garage on time this morning…. But, other than that, I don’t feel anything”

    That. Is. Perfection.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @Baud:

    Write a father’s day greeting in the style of Donald Trump.

    Challenge accepted. ChatGPT says:

    Happy Father’s Day to all the incredible dads out there! You know, nobody loves dads more than me, believe me. I’m the best dad, they say. Tremendous dads, really fantastic people. And let me tell you, fathers are so important, so, so important. We have the best dads, folks. The fake media won’t tell you about all the great things I’ve done for my kids. So, whatever. Enjoy your day or whatever.

    Seems like this might work.

  32. 32.

    O. Felix Culpa

    An intriguing article by Timothy Snyder on the Felon’s veepstakes: Felon Seeks Vice: Trump’s VP Search and the Politics of Impotence.

    Usually, vice-presidential candidates are selected for virtues.  They are expected to bring new voters in November, to complement the presidential candidate, and to be qualified to be president in case of emergency.

    Donald Trump is searching, quite literally, for vice.

    Trump is not so much trying to win an election as he is trying to gain power, so he needs someone who agrees with his Big Lie that he won the election last time, and who will stand with him during his second coup attempt.  He does not contemplate ceding power at any later point, so the question of the qualifications of a vice-presidential candidate is not so relevant.

    […]

    And so those who wish to join the Republican ticket as the vice-presidential nominee must prove not their worth but their worthlessness.  They must demonstrate that they do not challenge Trump in any way, and that they would not, should they become president, provide any resistance to those who would like to see American government fail.  They must engage, in other words, in a politics of impotence, a determined effort to show that they lack determination.

    There’s a lot more worth reading in the article, but basically Snyder suggests that JD Vance is the best among the veep wannabes at playing the politics of impotence–read the article to delve into what he means by that–and therefore the most dangerous.

  35. 35.

    geg6

    @HumboldtBlue:

    First they couldn’t get women to date them and they got all mad about it.  Now gay men don’t want them either and they are just as mad about that.  Losers, every one of them.

  37. 37.

    Jinchi

    @Scout211: I’ve never heard that story that Biden was planning to serve for only one term.

    It was a story spun by various pundits who were sure he’d never plan to be president into his mid 80s, so assumed he must have promised “people” privately.

    It was always absurd to think that Biden would risk the advantage of incumbency. If he hadn’t planned on serving 8 years, he’d never have run at all.

  38. 38.

    HumboldtBlue

    @geg6: ​ 

    Every goddamn one of’em. I love the stories of the GOP staffers in DC who can’t a wink, much less a nod from a woman because they work for the shittiest people in the world.

  40. 40.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: It did miss the essential element of a dad coming up to Trump, tears in his eyes, saying ‘sir….’.

    Maybe the pro version of the chatbot would get that detail right.

  41. 41.

    TBone

    “To paraphrase Propane Jane, fuck trying to get aggrieved and bitter white pricks to see the light. The future lies with making them not matter.”

  44. 44.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Jinchi:

    It was a story spun by various pundits

    That sounds plausible. I can’t imagine the savvy politico Biden ever saying anything that would preemptively take away the advantage of incumbency. It was probably wishcasting on the part of the librul media.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: You have said that before, and I think that’s a terrible thing to say.

    The people who vote for Trump, or don’t vote, or vote third party… they are the ones that get what they deserve.

    But the people who are fighting like hell to make sure he doesn’t get elected?  If Trump is elected in spite of our best efforts, we sure as hell will not deserve what comes next.

  52. 52.

    Jinchi

    @WaterGirl: Agreed. It wasn’t the voters who elected Trump the first time. I don’t know why they deserve the blame for a dysfunctional system.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @wjca: Actually, I came over here to mention this story.

    Wow! The newsroom seems to have decided to go to war with their own CEO. Obviously, the odds of winning aren’t in their favor since the person who hired Lewis is clearly an asshole and a moron, but they’re not going down without a fight, and I’m seriously impressed.

    I’ll buy a subscription if they succeed.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: You have said that before, and I think that’s a terrible thing to say.

    Since I never know whether Baud is being serious, snarky or droll, I just automatically assume his comments aren’t serious.

    So I took that comment as not serious but I could be wrong.

  57. 57.

    Steve in the ATL

    Dear writer:

    If you are a professional writer writing for Writer’s Digest, which just published an article about homonyms, please learn the difference between “home” and “hone”. As it turns out, they are completely different words with completely different meanings.  Who could known?  Other than, you know, anyone who works as a professional writer writing articles for Writer’s Digest.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

    Yours truly,

    Your friend who scored above 200 on the verbal SAT

  59. 59.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: Are you trying to train an AI to want to kill all of humanity?

    One segment of AI proponents thinks that’s inevitable. You’ll notice I said proponents — they still want to develop AIs, they just want to figure out what they have to do so the AI sees them as loyal and doesn’t kill them when it goes on its rampage. It’s a lot like the Cthulhu cultists, really.

  60. 60.

    smith

    That’s my guv:

    JB Pritzker @JBPritzker

    2h

    Gosh – the convicted felon insulting me and Milwaukee in the same week. Is it because we are both hosting conventions full of people who can’t stand him?

    Glad to see “convicted felon” is becoming the standard way to refer to the Republican presidential nominee.

  62. 62.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Trivia Man:

    Glad to see “convicted felon” is becoming the standard way to refer to the Republican presidential nominee.

    How sweet it is.

  67. 67.

    mrmoshpotato

    @smith: My guv too!  Was telling a neighbor yesterday what a great job Pritzker did during the pandemic while Dump was letting it run wild killing.

  68. 68.

    RaflW

    @Sister Golden Bear: I was joking with my BF yesterday that there should definitely be Grindr spies in Milwaukee for RNC. Not us, neither have an account and don’t want one, but I’m sure it’ll be busy.

  70. 70.

    jimmiraybob

    Just a thought that occurred to me today; if we are to accept originalism … what the average Joe would have have thought was the meaning of the Constitution in late 18th century America … then why do we allow papists that are loyal to a foreign leader [the Pope (AKA, the AntiChrist)] and a foreign government (the Vatican) to occupy the SCOTUS?  Off with their heads!!!  1776!!!  Hang the witches!!!!

    OK, it’s passed now. I feel better.

    141 days to the next election.

  72. 72.

    Tom Levenson

    I got nothing to add but that I enjoyed a Father’s Day evening at Fenway Park with my spouse and the Red Sox summarily dealt with the Evil Empire.

    great night for a ballgame.

  73. 73.

    Chris

    @PJ:

    Some reporters keep repeating that Biden said he would only serve one term, but I have never seen any citation from any source that he actually said this to anyone.

    The entire story comes back to one Politico article from 2019 that claims to be quoting four anonymous Democratic campaign officials.  The media went absolutely gaga over it, but all of the many many articles written on the subject go back to that one as their source material.

  75. 75.

    Chris

    @sdhays:

    Wow! The newsroom seems to have decided to go to war with their own CEO. Obviously, the odds of winning aren’t in their favor since the person who hired Lewis is clearly an asshole and a moron, but they’re not going down without a fight, and I’m seriously impressed.

    They may not win, but if they make enough of a stink on their way out, it might leave the idea imprinted in the public’s mind that the newspaper is “no longer” a liberal voice, but a Trump rag, to be evaluated as such.

    As I’ve said many times, one of the most toxic things about the mainstream media is that people continue to believe it’s “liberally biased,” which makes its Butter Emailz/Biden Is Old/Al Gore Invented The Internet bullshit far more effective among the low-infos.  It wouldn’t have nearly as much impact if these media were understood to be right-wing rags; then people would simply say “well, whether it’s true or not, they’re going to say it regardless.”  Instead, people think “oh my God!  Even the liberal media says this is bad!  It must be really bad!”

  76. 76.

    Cheez Whiz

    @wjca: its really clear the plan is to crush the current culture at the paper and replace it with a British  “eyeballs above (including the law) all else” one. Current employees better get with the program or see if the Penny Saver is hiring.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The country has a lot of different people in it and many of them will not deserve whatever happens.

  81. 81.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl:

    But the people who are fighting like hell to make sure he doesn’t get elected?  If Trump is elected in spite of our best efforts, we sure as hell will not deserve what comes next.

    Agree 110%! Maybe Baud forgot that part.

  82. 82.

    Sandia Blanca

    @Steve in the ATL: Great letter! Home/hone are just one of the pairs of words that have gone off the deep end of correct usage. How about discreet/discrete? Precede/proceed? Breathe/breath, and loathe/loath? Shutter/shudder, and utter/udder? The list goes on . . .

  83. 83.

    eversor

    @Scout211:

    No.  It was hinted at.

    What was said was that Biden viewed himself as a bridge.  Place holder.  This was always a temporary thing.

    Now you could have read this for what it was.  Which is that Biden knowns he’s from the before time and trying to pass the torch on to younger gernerations.  See Mayor Pete crushing it.  Daily.  Or see AOC or Crockett crushing it.  They are the future.

    Or you could have read this as Biden intended to be a one term president, except he never actually said that.

    Anybody who was paying attention sort of got what he meant.  And he’s not famous for being subtle.

    It’s a good thing.  We have fucks like Schumer and RBG who don’t or didn’t know when to cut tack and run.  But we also have people like Pelosi and Biden who seem pretty good and promoting up the next generation and knowning how to exit.

  84. 84.

    eversor

    @Mike E:

    As someone with inlaws in that group they aren’t.  The prior Pope is the Pope… in exile.  And Francis (and granted this is true) rejection of patriarchy and gender issues does make him a heritic.  If you really believe that horrible book and that horrible Jesus.  To say nothing of Paul.  The New Testament is worse on these issues.  By far.  Jesus had a lot to do with that.

    They view themselves as the Church In Exile and do not think they can keep their faith if they can’t force it on all of us.  And they aren’t wrong.  That’s how Christianity has always worked.  Needs the sword and bullet or it fails.

    Opus Dei is also the mild version of all that.  What you can brag about being in.  There are other ones that buy up hospitals just to remove birth control and abortion care.  Christianity, oh my!

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Mike E:

    Are Opus Dei fascists loyal to Francis? They seem to be their own papal bulls, if you know what I mean.

    Like most religious conservatives, they are convinced that they know what God means, specifically that God hates who they hate, and that they can safely ignore anything that says otherwise.  This includes the direct words of Jesus Christ, and hey, once you’ve crossed that bridge you can find an excuse to ignore anybody.

  89. 89.

    like a metaphor

    @Chris:

    As I’ve said many times, one of the most toxic things about the mainstream media is that people continue to believe it’s “liberally biased,”

    Truth!  I can’t think of a single news source in America that could truthfully be called liberal

  91. 91.

    Chet Murthy

    @HumboldtBlue: Wow, I feel for Mr. Brothwell.  So much “lose” in those guys he talks with.  So much lose.  The last guy for instance: he doesn’t want to blow up his life by coming out, but hey, you don’t have to come out to, y’know, not be a goddamn G(r)OPer.  FFS, surely there are gay men who are Dems, and on the down-low.  FFS.

  92. 92.

    wjca

    @like a metaphor:  I can’t think of a single news source in America that could truthfully be called liberal.

    Be aware that this depends, heavily, on where you draw the lines between “liberal”, “moderate”, and “conservative.”  (Or, if you cannot abide the concept of “moderate”, between “liberal” and conservative.”)

  93. 93.

    Chet Murthy

    @wjca: Y’know, it used to be that the definition of “conservative” was “primarily concerned with the rights of property”.  But today, it’s something more like “OK with denying other Americans their equal rights”.  Or “OK with insurrectionists”.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @like a metaphor:

    There are a couple, but they are not on TV, Cable or print, they are on line, like ProPublica.

    There are a few left, mostly in “print”, that do actual “journalmentalism”, LA Times and a couple other mentioned in the comments in other posts.

    They all are hurting for money.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

     

    @Matt McIrvin:

     

    Y’all are conflating the collective with the individuals that are part of the collective.

    If you say an evil corporation got what it deserved, that’s not saying that every employee in that corporation deserved it too.

  98. 98.

    DougL

    @Chris:  This really is the whole game when it comes to the “even the liberal media.”

    It wouldn’t have nearly as much impact if these media were understood to be right-wing rags; then people would simply say “well, whether it’s true or not, they’re going to say it regardless.”  Instead, people think “oh my God!  Even the liberal media says this is bad!  It must be really bad!”

  100. 100.

    Chris

    @like a metaphor:

    I can’t think of a single news source in America that could truthfully be called liberal

    Talking Points Memo?

    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver?

    The Daily Show when I was watching it in the Dubya years would have qualified, mostly.  It still might, but it’s borderline because Stewart has a pathological both-sider aspect that doesn’t do his more well-meaning qualities any favors.

    But yeah, I mean, it’s either stuff that’s officially considered entertainment because if it were considered serious news, it’d be shut down immediately, or it’s small and niche websites like TPM (or, frankly, this place), but there aren’t any significant news outlets that do what Fox News does for the liberal side.

    You’ve also got individual pundits who are able to wrestle a spot for themselves in mainstream media, which is one of the ways they still differ from the explicitly right-wing media – Paul Krugman is the ur-example.  But they’re not really representative of the media itself, and they’re in constant danger.

Comments are closed.