Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-Colorado) is urging older black people to tell younger black voters to vote for President Biden in November.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Biden on this new program,” said Clyburn, co-chair of the Biden 2024 campaign. Not us Older black Americans “should try to talk some sense into their kids.”
Clyburn’s comments come as polls show Biden struggling among young black voters and as a growing number of black men suggest they might support former President Trump in November.
Young black voters are particularly disappointed with the government’s response to the Gaza war, while concerns about the economy, criminal justice reform and voting rights are also top concerns for black voters more broadly.
But Clyburn seemed shocked by the idea that black voters would back Trump, who recently He did more for black people than anyone else. Except maybe President Lincoln.
“If that’s what you think,” Clyburn said, “your parents should have sent the mule to school and kept you at home.”
He added that if black voters support Trump in November, the former president will surely win.
“We may be going back to the days of Jim Crow laws again,” he said.
Clyburn said younger voters’ infatuation with Trump may be partly because older black Americans haven’t spoken out about their experiences before and during the civil rights movement.
“I know what I had to go through, I know what my parents went through,” he said, adding that he needed to share with the younger generation “the humiliation that my mother and father had to endure in order for me to be who I am today.”
“When I see or hear about a candidate wanting to reintroduce this humiliation into our electoral process, I have an obligation to sit down with my kids and say, ‘What are you thinking?'” Clyburn said.
Clyburn added that he is committed to fighting for Biden’s reelection.
“I’m going to give it my all and compete and win,” he said. “Maybe we can’t do it. My parents couldn’t.”
In response, the Trump campaign argued that support among black voters was growing due to dissatisfaction with former President Trump’s record and the Biden administration.
“Senator Clyburn knows that President Trump’s approval rating has risen to 23% among black voters, a record high not seen in decades,” said Janiya Thomas, the Trump campaign’s black media director.
“The reason is clear: Black voters know that our lives got exponentially better under President Trump. Under Trump, we became richer, safer and more confident,” Thomas said. “Today, Black voters are frustrated that the Biden Administration is prioritizing illegal immigration over our own interests, and that Joe’s destructive policies have done nothing to help our communities, driving up gas prices, grocery prices and rent, making it nearly impossible to buy a new home, start a new business or save for the future.”
“The Trump campaign’s outreach to minority communities stands in stark contrast to Joe Biden’s failing campaign, whose only strategy is to gaslight black voters with desperate ads and pandering speeches that fail to address Biden’s terrible policies,” Thomas concluded in a statement.
This story was updated at 7:52 p.m.
