COLUMBIA — It’s been said South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn is the reason Joe Biden became president by helping deliver the Palmetto State’s crucial Black vote following three crushing defeats in the 2020 Democratic primaries.
Now Clyburn — longtime friend and close adviser to the sitting president — has a new challenge: saving Biden’s presidency following a disastrous debate performance last week that has left much of the Democratic establishment panicked over Biden’s ability to defeat former President Donald Trump this November.
In a nationally televised debate June 27, Biden, 81, showed his age often, regularly failing to complete thoughts or effectively describe his administration’s own policies, prompting a tidal wave of calls from pundits and the liberal establishment to replace him on the top of the ticket.
One sitting U.S. congressman — 77-year-old Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett — already has called for Biden to leave the race, while the editorial boards of several major U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, have issued their own appeals for Biden to clear the way for a new generation of leadership. On July 2, CNN reported a consortium of Democratic governors were eagerly seeking a sit-down with the president’s team amid concerns over Biden’s long-term viability in the race.
In the days since, one of the strongest voices in Biden’s corner has been 83-year-old Clyburn, whose endorsement of the former vice president in 2020 was considered key to cementing Biden’s victory in South Carolina’s critical, “First in the South” primary.
In the swing state of Wisconsin on June 30, Clyburn delivered a speech to parishioners at a predominantly Black church urging them to stick with Biden. Clyburn rallied with community leaders the following day in Milwaukee, insisting in public remarks that “nothing is wrong” with Biden’s brain. And on the television circuit, Clyburn has stuck to the script, maintaining there is nothing wrong with Biden and that he was merely “overprepared” for a debate most agree he lost.
“I could see Joe Biden was trying not to stray from the preparation,” Clyburn said on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” on Sunday. “He was grappling for numbers, grappling for platform positions, rather than reacting directly to the question from his own personal feelings, personal experiences. I always think you do much better on the television when people can feel your response as well as hear.”
The White House has noticed. At the top of a July 2 press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had a cold during the debate and leaned on Clyburn’s comments that he had made over the weekend on CNN.
“Look, you heard from Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi. You heard from Representative Clyburn,” she said, as she went on to quote Clyburn directly: “The president has done a great job leading for the last 3 1/2 years. The best predictor of future behavior is past performance.”
But she kept going, reading his words from the podium as she again reminded the press that this comment had come from Clyburn.
She said Clyburn and Pelosi weren’t just two people who are leaders in Congress. They are people who are “close to the president.”
Others feel Biden’s debate performance was a bridge too far. To many, the debate laid bare concerns about Biden’s age that had long been posed in snippets of video pushed by conservatives showing Biden appearing to be lost during public events or committing verbal and social gaffes.
South Carolina Rep. Jermaine Johnson — a Columbia Democrat who previously served on former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s campaign team — called for Biden to drop out of the race shortly after the debate, writing for liberal South Carolina news site The Arena that he found Biden’s performance “heartbreaking.”
“He was feeble, meek and undeniably old. (Now on the other hand what we saw from Trump was a loud, boisterous, and demeaning liar),” Johnson wrote June 28. “It is counterproductive for Democrats to act like we all did not see what we all saw. We can’t just keep going down this road without acknowledging our new reality.”
In the days since, Johnson told The Post and Courier that he has shifted his tune, largely for two reasons: because Biden has so far refused to drop out, and because of recent decisions by the Supreme Court that have reversed years of legal precedents governing the administrative state and granting presidents unfettered legal immunity in the performance of their official duties.
“We don’t need King Trump,” he said in an interview.
If the party’s only option is Biden, he said, he will continue to support the president, though he believes there are potentially better options — options he said should be explored.
Johnson noted some of the urgency behind removing Biden might be a remnant from the 2020 Democratic primaries where the Biden campaign’s viability came not from his popularity but from his ability to financially outlast his fellow candidates.
Even Vice President Kamala Harris (a possible successor to Biden should he drop out) was not voters’ top choice by the time she exited the race nearly two months before the Iowa caucuses.
“You have to wonder if the strategy should be for Kamala to be the next person in line, even though she’s the vice president,” Johnson said.
Clyburn wants the Biden-Harris ticket to remain intact.
Posed the hypothetical of an alternative nominee by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on July 2, Clyburn — who still forcefully backed Biden under questioning — said he would stick by the sitting vice president should Biden choose to drop out of the race.
“I will support her if he were to step aside,” Clyburn said.
Senior politics reporter Caitlin Byrd contributed from Charleston.
