It’s always somebody else’s fault. As the Democratic Party continues to experience record low approval ratings, across multiple polls, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) is blaming the media for not promoting the party enough.
Last Friday, Clyburn was speaking with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, during which he was inevitably asked about his party’s poor numbers. As it turns out, Clyburn actually thinks his party has a “good message.”
“There are valid criticisms out there about the fact that there is not a cohesive message coming from the Democratic Party,” Velshi said, pointing out the obvious. “What’s your take on that?”
“Well, I think the message coming from the Democratic Party is a good message,” Clyburn claimed. “The problem we’ve got, I’ll say, is that we have to depend upon the media to deliver it.” He went on to go after specific outlets to call out.
“If we have The Washington Post, for instance, caving to this wannabe dictator and we’ve got other media entities that seem to rather push a narrative that will bring eyes to their newspapers or to their television sets and not really give a fair hearing or reporting to what we’re doing,” Clyburn continued.
Not only did Clyburn go with blaming others, he also went with a typical Democratic narrative in claiming President Donald Trump is “this wannabe dictator” and went after The Post in particular. Last year, for the 2024 election between Trump and then Vice President Kamala Harris, the outlet dared to decline to make an endorsement, drawing ire from many Democrats and their allies in their media.
Clyburn did speak to those members of the press he found favor with, including Velshi and his network, not exactly surprising given their liberal leanings.
“I have to rely upon people like yourself,” Clyburn said, offering his praise for Velshi. “You do a great job with this. That’s why I like coming on your shows on the weekends because you do a real good substantive reporting of what the issues are around us. But when you’ve got people who say we’re not going to fact-check, we’re going to worry about whether or not you’re telling the truth. And just let the reports go out there. That’s what’s killing us as Democrats, because we don’t have a stomach for just lying,” he claimed, with such a response not exactly taking responsibility.
Why should Clyburn, once a member of House leadership, “have to rely upon” anyone in the media? Especially if he does believe Democrats really have "a good message" to sell?
Clyburn previously served as the House majority whip. He was also particularly instrumental in former President Joe Biden winning the South Carolina primary in 2020, after a string of embarrassing primary losses. Clyburn then prompted Biden to promise to select a black woman as his running mate, which he did with Kamala Harris. The DNC went on to even upend the primary process, rewarding South Carolina over New Hampshire, which has the first primary in the nation, drawing bipartisan ire.
Earlier this month, Clyburn was asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan about the recent piece from The New York Times on Harris that had recently come out, claiming she had a “binary” choice in running for governor of California in 2026 or president once more in 2028, but not both.
“I will say this, I think that she is a tremendous talent. I think she ran a great campaign. I think she was ill served in that campaign by people who should have listened to some of us who saw and felt things,” he said in part about that report.
Blaming others seems to be a pattern for Democrats to be sure, all while his party has an approval rating in the low 20s, according to multiple polls.
🚨Clyburn: Democrats have a great message. The reason they're having problems is because the media isn’t leftwing enough. pic.twitter.com/tsb0cvn4bW
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 20, 2025