Clyburn: I’m ‘very concerned’ about Biden’s standing with Black voters

Rep. James Clyburn said on Sunday that he was “very concerned” about President Joe Biden’s standing with Black voters as the general election nears.

The South Carolina Democrat, making an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said he had spoken to the president about his fears, which were based around the failure of the White House to translate its legislative accomplishments into positive voter sentiment.

“I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done,” Clyburn said. “My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done. If you took the little simple thing [that is] student loan debt relief, he promised to relieve student loan debt, and he has done that.”

“This president is keeping his promises,” he added, but “people keep focusing on the one or two things he did not get accomplished.”

Clyburn carries more weight within the president’s orbit than any other member of Congress owing to the critical role he played in helping Biden secure the 2020 primary. So his fears will undoubtedly register among the reelection team in Wilmington.

The timing of his comments are notable too, as Biden is set to head to Clyburn’s home state on Monday for a speech at the Mother Emanuel AME Church, the site of the slaying of nine parishioners by a white supremacist in 2015.

Clyburn went on to say that he believed that Biden’s poor standing in the polls was being overemphasized, arguing that polls today were “not a true reflection of where voters are.” But his larger fears about the state of the race have been echoed elsewhere.

Former President Barack Obama told Biden directly that he had concerns about the structure of his campaign, according to a report in the Washington Post confirmed by POLITICO. Among the points he stressed during a lunch the two had prior to the holidays, was that his 2012 reelection campaign had clear lines of authority both inside the White House and at the campaign headquarters, according to a person familiar with the lunch.

Other top Democrats have made similar concerns, including around the absence of key personnel in critical swing states.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks defended the current infrastructure.

“Look, our campaign has been awake since the president announced in April which is why we've come out the gate swinging as well,” said Fulks.

“We've put innovative organizing programs in place to begin to communicate with voters on the ground, which is why we've made investments into constituency media — the largest investments to voters of color, Hispanic voters, young voters — than any other presidential campaign in history. And now we're in the phase where more Americans are paying attention to what's going on and that is why we're making the choice.”