Democratic House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., defended and reiterated a comparison of the current state of the United States with Germany in the years leading to the rise of Adolph Hitler.
During a “Fox News Sunday” interview, host Shannon Bream gave the Democratic leader a chance to reflect on his recent remark that the U.S. “is on track to repeat what happened in Germany,” and Clyburn stuck to his position.
“The facts are very clear,” he said. “I’ve studied history all of my life. I’ve taught history. And I’m telling you, what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany, in Italy.”
When asked if that means not voting for Democrats in the midterm elections means supporting something akin to the rise of Hitler, Clyburn specified that this comparison would not apply to voting for any non-Democrat, just for “election deniers” and “liars.”
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With that in mind, Bream then asked if Democrats bear responsibility for spending millions in primary races to back Republicans who support former President Donald Trump because they believed it would be easier for Democrats to defeat them.
“I believe that you should always best position yourself to win in the general election,” Clyburn said. He added that he himself is “not a proponent” of such tactics, “but I can understand it.”
Bream then played a clip of Clyburn from Tuesday, in which he said, “Losing this democracy could very well be the end of the world.”
Asked about such rhetoric, Clyburn denied at first denied that he – or anyone else – ever said it.
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“Nobody’s saying the world is ending,” Clyburn said. “Democracy will be ended. The world would continue to exist. The world was here before Hitler, the world was here after Hitler.”
Clyburn continued: “The world will not end. The kind of world we have, the kind of country we have. We’ve got to decide how we want to exist in this world. And that’s what we’re talking about. This hyperbole is not part of what we’re saying here.”
Bream then read back Clyburn’s exact words from Tuesday that she had already played minutes earlier.
“End of the world? Come on!” Clyburn exclaimed in reaction to his own words.
“If that’s a quote from me, I misspoke,” he added.