Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-Colorado) left open the possibility of supporting a new candidate if President Biden drops out of the election, but predicted that Democrats are likely to lose the presidential election in November if they cannot quickly unify behind one presidential candidate.
In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Clyburn said he still supports Biden “until he changes his mind” about being the party’s nominee.
“If we go into the convention and have an open process at the convention, we’re going to get the same results as we had in 1968, 1972 and 1980,” Clyburn said.
“When we had the 1980 convention, we lost a sitting president, and in 1972 we won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia,” he continued. “And we all know that when we ousted Lyndon Johnson from the presidency in 1968, we ousted a man with a great record on one issue, the Vietnam War. Now, if we use one issue to oust a president, the result will be the same.”
The longtime Biden ally acknowledged that Democratic lawmakers have growing concerns about Biden’s candidacy but said he still supports the president.
“I support Joe Biden. He’s still in the race. If he continues in the race, he will be the nominee,” Clyburn said. “And I think we should all find a way to unite behind that candidate.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, R-Indiana, Virginia, on Sunday joined calls from within and outside the Democratic Party for Biden to drop out of the race, citing concerns he might not be able to beat former President Trump in November’s election.
But Biden and his campaign remain adamant that the president will be the Democratic nominee, despite growing calls to do so.
“Joe Biden has made it very clear that he is in this race and he is in it to win. Further, he is the presumptive nominee and has no plans to field an alternative candidate,” Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s battleground states director, wrote in a memo released after the Republican National Convention.
The presidential race remains close, but the lead has widened in recent days, with Trump leading Biden by 2.5 percentage points in national polls, according to The Hill/Decision Desk average of polls.
