If James Clyburn was a Republican, the mainstream media would be excoriating him. He constantly debases the Holocaust by using it as a political tool. But he believes it’s okay because he’s a student of history.
The latest example of his inconsiderate use of the Holocaust for political purposes was reported by my friend Rusty Weiss at Redstate.
Appearing on Neil Cavuto’s program:
If you thought Democrats were going to learn that comparing Donald Trump to Hitler was a tactical misfire on their part, think again. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) dusted off the ol’ playbook in an appearance with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto.
Not only did Clyburn compare the president-elect to Hitler, he doubled down by suggesting he’s also comparable to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and then bragged that he’s been saying Trump is dragging America back to 1930s Germany for years.
Because he’s a student of history … or something.
“The country has gone lurching back to the right. I hope it’s not going as far right as that which happened in Germany in the 1930s,” Clyburn said, clearly suggesting it was. “But you may remember I forewarned way back in 2018 that I saw this coming. I’ve studied history all of my life.”
During the past decade, Clyburn has made inappropriate Holocaust references about Trump, but at times, he’s targeted others with Holocaust statements.
In August 2013, Clyburn likened conservative bloggers to Hitler.
After the Charlottesville incident in 2017, Clyburn said Trump was like Hitler. He did it again in January 2018; Clyburn was on the Don Lemon show comparing America today to the election of Hitler. When Lemon pointed out that Clyburn’s comments were a bit hyperbolic, Clyburn walked his comment back a half step. When Lemon was on CNN, he acted as if any American who breathed was a racist. But he called Clyburn’s statement hyperbolic,
Just as he did on Cavuto, Clyburn took a half step back.
“The number one difference in this, if I were making that comparison, then this president would be Mussolini and Putin would be Hitler.”
Rusty Weiss mocked Clyburn in his post by calling him “a student of history … or something.” Well, Rusty, you know me. You know that based on my course selection in High School, and College, along with my studying since I am a student of history. Trust me when I tell you that when it comes to history, James Clyburn is full of shit er–cow pies.On March 7th, 2019, when Rep. Omar’s Antisemitism became an issue in Congress, Clyburn worked to protect Omar. He talked about her experience in Sudan and in Kenyan refugee camps and, in the process, slammed the children of Holocaust victims who dared to preserve the memory of their parents’ suffering.
Clyburn came to Omar’s defense Wednesday, lamenting that many of the media reports surrounding the recent controversy have omitted to mention that Omar, who was born in Somalia, had to flee the country to escape violence and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States.
Her experience, Clyburn argued, is much more empirical — and powerful — than that of people who are generations removed from the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps during World War II and the other violent episodes that have marked history. “I’m serious about that. There are people who tell me, ‘Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors.’ ‘My parents did this.’ It’s more personal with her,” Clyburn said. “I’ve talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.”
That comment was so hurtful the ADL broke its unspoken rule against criticizing Democrats and actually bashed a liberal.
The Holocaust was a singular tragedy resulting in the death of 6M Jews. It’s offensive to diminish the suffering of survivors & the continuing pain of Jews today. We respect @WhipClyburn’s long record of public service, but he should apologize & retract: https://t.co/m9zWTFHz1z
— ADL (@ADL) March 7, 2019
Two weeks later, Clyburn did it again, making a Trump/Hitler analogy:
“Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. And he went about the business of discrediting institutions to the point that people bought into it,” Clyburn said. “Nobody would have believed it now. But swastikas hung in churches throughout Germany. We had better be very careful.
“To allow anybody to discredit the press, discredit the military, to discredit our leadership in — both in the Congress and outside — we are asking for dire consequences and I think it’s time for the Congress, House and Senate, to grow spines and do what is necessary to protect this democracy,” he said. “This man and his family are the greatest threats to democracy of my lifetime.”
March 2020 saw Clyburn call all Trump supporters Nazis during an interview on the HBO Axios program.
On PBS in August 2020, Clyburn told Judy Woodruff, He [Trump] thinks that the American people will be duped by him, like the people of Germany was duped by Adolf Hitler.” That same weekend on CNN’s State of The Union program, he said, “I feel very strongly that Trump is Mussolini, Putin, and Hitler,”
It’s a basic rule of American politics. Never use the Holocaust or any related terms, such as Nazis or Hitler, for political warfare. The Holocaust is a singular event in world history, and not just because of its scale and inhuman horror. Yes, there have been, and sadly will be, other genocides of other groups, and there have even been other atrocities against the Jewish people. But generally, genocide is waged to suppress a group, keep them out of a country’s politics, take their land, or some other economic reason. The Holocaust was different– the targeting of Jews by Hitler and the Nazis wasn’t based on a desire to take over a Jewish nation’s land; or. Income Jews held relatively little power–they were just hated. The Nazis took Jews from all over Europe and killed them.
Why does Clyburn insist on cheapening the memory of the suffering of 6 million Jews by using the Holocaust as a political tool? Perhaps It’s because of Clyburn’s friendship with Louis Farrakhan. In 2011, Clyburn wrote in The Nation of Islam magazine, called The Final Call, “I want to thank Min. Farrakhan for offering up several precepts that we ought to adhere to.” “Based on his constant debasing of the Holocaust, perhaps we know which of Farrakhan’s precepts to which he is referring.
And where is the mainstream media? Why do they ignore Clyburn’s constant use of the Holocaust as a political tool.? Sadly, just like other anti-Semitic incidents, the media chooses to ignore or label them as something else. The media may believe that Jewish blood is cheap. With Rep. James Clyburn, there is no doubt that is his belief.
