Clyburn hits Johnson, Trump after joint meeting: ‘Outright lies’

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) slammed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and former President Trump’s joint press conference, saying it was full of “outright lies.” 

Clyburn was asked how he feels Friday’s press conference in Palm Beach, Fla., affects the congressional Democrats’ ability to continue working with Johnson on Capitol Hill. He said the joint showing at Mar-a-Lago will not have a “whole lot” of impact because the Democratic Party puts the country over “any candidate.” 

“We will always put this country over any candidate, and it seems as if the Speaker is putting candidate Trump over the country, of these United States,” Clyburn said during a Saturday appearance on MSNBC.  

“And we will never do that. We ran on the platform of putting people over politics, and we’ll continue to do that,” he continued. “So when it comes to preserving this democracy, moving an agenda forward to benefit the American people, we will set aside the politics and not worry about this press conference full of bad information, misinformation, disinformation, just outright lies, and that’s what they were doing.” 

Johnson appeared with Trump at a Friday press conference where the Republicans leaders unveiled legislation that would ban non-U.S. citizens from voting, something that is already illegal. Johnson said the problem comes from the lack of border security, stating that Democrats are making it easier to come into the U.S., vote and have an impact on the electoral landscape. 

“Why would they do this?” Johnson said Friday. “Why would they allow this chaos? Why the violence? Because they want to turn these people into voters.”

Clyburn said the press conference was an effort to create “something out of nothing.” 

“You have a study done of 20 years of elections in this country and find out less than three or four dozen people voted illegally,” Clyburn said. “We don’t know exactly why they voted illegally. I don’t know if they thought they were legal, whatever may be the case, we [are] talking about less than .00001 percent, that to me is what that press conference is all about.

“Trying to create something out of nothing, but that will not deter us from doing what is necessary for the American people.”