Latest news with #JamesClyburn
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Congressman James Clyburn holds town hall in Lake City
LAKE CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — Congressman James Clyburn hosted a town hall in Lake City on Tuesday, and nearly 200 people from multiple counties came out to hear what he had to say, and made sure they were heard as well. Clyburn voiced his concerns about what he called 'The Trump Administration's lack of concern for issues like health disparities in rural areas,' the economy, and civil rights. 'We have differences, which we will always have, it doesn't mean we cannot resolve those differences and figure out how to get along with each other,' Clyburn said. Retired Physician Dr. Albert Mims voiced his concerns about the people that need health care in rural areas. 'The thing that concerns me so much with this budget is the absolute disregard for those among us that need the most help,' Mims explained. Mauretta Wilson, the Democratic chair for Williamsburg County, said these town halls are what the party needs to let the public know they are still working for everyone. 'I think, right now, we have to step out and have these conversations, and Congressman Clyburn has taken that stance in having this town hall series, so I applaud him for that effort,' Wilson said. Clyburn said he heard the concerns of the community and saw different economic and social backgrounds come together to express their thoughts. 'I saw, sitting in the audience, some pretty low income folks, and I also saw in that audience one of the richest women in this country,' Clyburn said. 'To see that all in the same room, this is what this meeting is all about.' This town hall was one of several Clyburn is hosting across the sixth congressional district. The next one is set for Thursday in North Charleston. * * * Eric Cooper is a multimedia journalist at News13. He joined the team in September 2024 and covers stories in the Pee Dee. He is a native of Cades in Williamsburg County and a proud graduate of Kingstree Senior High School and Benedict College. You can read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
CNN guest makes very unfortunate Joe Biden prediction hours before former president's cancer diagnosis
A top confidant of Joe Biden 's took to CNN to argue that the former president could have served a second term - only hours before Biden announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn made the ill-timed remarks to CNN 's Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday morning, while casting doubt on accounts of Biden's mental decline. Biden's office would later issue a statement that saying an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer had metastasized to the point where it had spread throughout the former president's bones. Speaking to Tapper on Sunday morning, Clyburn, 84, insisted his friend could have stayed in office through 2029. 'I talked to him on the telephone very often,' the long-serving South Carolina Democrat said. 'And I never saw anything that I thought was outside of the ordinary.' Tapper asked Clyburn if he thought that Biden 'really would have been able to perform as president all the way through January 2029?' 'Yes, I thought that back then,' the congressman replied. 'I still think that.' Tapper and political reporter Alex Thompson' spoke to some 200 sources for their new book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Among them were multiple Biden advisors who expressed alarm or came forward with anecdotes detailing the former president's memory lapses in the buildup to the 2024 election - accounts Clyburn dismissed as fiction. 'The fact of the matter is, I saw Biden often,' Clyburn told Tapper on Sunday. 'I never saw anything I thought was unusual,' he continued. 'I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job.' Clyburn - who last year received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Biden at the White House - admitted to being 'concerned' by Biden's debate performance against Donald Trump last year. 'A lot of us were a bit concerned about his schedule in the run-up to the debate,' he said. Clyburn chalked the performance up to factors beyond the president's control, calling it the result of 'preparation overload' brought on by his aides. 'They were cramming at the end, into a four- or five-day period, [all of the] preparation for the debate,' the congressman said. 'The question is, is this a condition, or is this an incident?' he asked. 'These kinds of concerns are out there, but none of us thought that there was anything here that created any suspicions of any prolonged condition.' Axios, the news site that employs Thompson, on Friday published new audio from a 2023 meeting between Biden and his special counsel, Robert Hur, who had been investigating the commander-in-chief's handling of classified documents. It suggested Biden had been experiencing at least some difficulty answering simple questions and important dates, including some surrounding the death of his son, Beau. Clyburn told Tapper that he did not view the recordings as a cause for concern, and that Biden's cognitive capabilities were as strong as ever. Tapper asked whether Clyburn believed his party's current 'low standing' stems from similar stances within the party. 'It very well could have. I haven't looked at the numbers behind the numbers to come to any conclusion as to what exactly is going on here,' the congressman replied. 'I have talked to people, talked to students,' he continued. 'And people still feel that Joe Biden had the capacity to do the work that needed to be done. 'They still feel that Joe Biden was a good president. And I do as well.' He added: 'But these people are also concerned when they look back at those tapes, they remember the debate. I have no way of knowing which one is true.' Hours later, Biden officials revealed the cancer diagnosis. The cancer had already metastasized and spread to his bones, the statement said.
Fox News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Dems face a litmus test over Biden's cognitive abilities
Print Close By Paul Steinhauser Published May 19, 2025 Sen. Chris Murphy says "it was a mistake" for his party to allow then-81-year-old President Joe Biden to remain on the 2024 ballot as long as he did. The Democrat from Connecticut, who is viewed as a possible contender for his party's 2028 presidential nomination, during an appearance on the Sunday morning talk shows was the latest Democrat to face questions about the former president's cognitive abilities. "I saw a president who was in control," Murphy said during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" as he pointed to his experience working closely with Biden on legislation in 2023. "That's my experience." However, the senator added "that by 2024 the American public had made up their mind, right, that they wanted the Democratic Party to nominate somebody new, and it was absolutely a mistake for the party to not listen to those voters." NEW BOOK PLACES BLAME ON BIDEN FOR HARRIS 2024 LOSS TO TRUMP He also noted that Democrats "all bear responsibility" for President Donald Trump's White House victory last November. However, longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime Biden ally and confidant, said on the Sunday talk shows that he never doubted the then-president's ability to lead the nation. "I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job," Clyburn argued in an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." Top Democrats like Murphy and Clyburn are facing a litmus test over Biden's mental acuity during his final years in office and whether Democrats should have been more strident earlier in the 2024 election cycle in calling on Biden to abandon his bid for a second term in the White House. The grilling comes as Biden's condition is once again making headlines, courtesy of excerpts from a new book being released this week, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," which offers claims of a White House cover-up of the then-president's apparent cognitive decline. BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH WORDS, KEY MEMORIES IN LEAKED AUDIO FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW Additionally, last week's leaked audio of Biden's 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, in which the then-president appears to suffer memory lapses, is also fueling the conversation. Hur, who investigated whether Biden years earlier had improperly stored classified documents, made major headlines early last year when he decided not to charge Biden but described the then-president as an "elderly man with a poor memory." The first question thrown at former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as he briefly met with reporters following a town hall with veterans and military families in Iowa last week was,"Did President Joe Biden experience cognitive decline while in office?" Buttigieg was asked. "Every time I needed something from him from the West Wing, I got it," answered Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who served four years in Biden's cabinet. He, like Murphy, may have national ambitions in 2028. After a second reporter followed up, asking, "Would the party have been better off if he had just not run for re-election?" Buttigieg answered, "Maybe. Right now, with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that's the case." Longtime New Hampshire-based radio host Chris Ryan pointed to his listeners on his popular morning news/talk program as he told Fox News, "I think that is one of the top things that they do want to know about." "The Democratic voters are still trying to sort through what happened and why," said Ryan, who has interviewed scores of White House hopefuls over the years. How the Democratic presidential hopefuls answer these questions will be an early test of their truthfulness in the eyes of voters who had serious concerns over whether Biden was mentally and physically up for another four years handling the world's most grueling job. However, Ryan noted that "it's different for each potential candidate based on their level of proximity to President Biden." BIDEN'S DIAGNOSIS: CANCER DESCRIBED AS AGGRESSIVE It is doubtful the questions will be going away in the coming days, even after Sunday's blockbuster announcement that Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Biden dropped out of the White House race last July, one month after a disastrous debate performance with Trump that sparked a chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for the then-president to end his re-election bid. He was replaced at the top of the ticket by then-Vice President Kamala Harris , who ended up losing November's presidential election to Trump. Democrats also suffered down ballot, losing control of the Senate and failing to win back the House majority from the Republicans. During an appearance on ABC's "The View" two weeks ago, Biden pushed back against accusations that he had suffered significant cognitive decline during the final year of his presidency. Rep. Ro Khanna of California was a leading supporter and surrogate on the campaign trail for Biden during the 2024 election cycle. After last June's debate, as a trickle of Democrats urging Biden to step aside turned into a steady stream, Khanna likened the embattled president to Rocky Balboa—the underdog boxer of big-screen legend. TARGETED BY TRUMP, THIS WELL KNOWN DEMOCRAT SPARKS 2028 SPECULATION "To rebuild trust, Democrats must be honest. In light of the facts that have come out, Joe Biden should not have run for reelection, and we should have had an open primary," Khanna wrote in a social media post. Khanna, in a statement, said, "I have always admired Biden's resilience and the grit he has shown after the loss of his son — and often compared that strength to Rocky. I was a surrogate for the president of my own party whose policies I backed. "But obviously we did not have the full picture, and in hindsight it is painfully obvious that President Biden should have made the patriotic decision not to run," Khanna added. LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS INTO TRUMP'S SECOND TERM, DEMOCRATS ALREADY EYEING 2028 PRESIDENTIAL RACE Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another possible White House candidate who was a top 2024 surrogate for Biden, said in a recent CNN interview when asked about Biden's cognitive abilities, "As a governor in a state halfway across the country who was working her tail off, 160 stops on a bus tour that I had lined through swing states, I was busy working. I was busy doing the voter connection and registration, and so can't speak to that directly." "I didn't see the president frequently." However, she added that "it does make me question a lot of the things I thought I knew over the course of the last year and a half." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP While the potential contenders are answering questions concerning Biden in different ways, there is one consensus. "We're not in a position to wallow in hindsight. We've got to get ready for some fundamental tests of the future of this country and this party," Buttigieg noted. Print Close URL
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Clyburn denies Biden's decline: ‘Never saw anything that I thought was unusual'
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), a close confidant of former President Biden, said Sunday that he was never concerned about Biden's ability to lead the country, even as the release of new audio and a forthcoming book have renewed questions about the former president's cognitive abilities. 'The fact of the matter is, I saw Biden often,' Clyburn told CNN's Jake Tapper in a 'State of the Union' interview. 'I talked to him on the telephone very often, and I never saw anything that I thought was outside of the ordinary.' Tapper is one of the authors of the book 'Original Sin,' which has offered new insight into Biden's final stretch in office, but Clyburn pushed back on Tapper's points that some Biden advisers expressed alarm or came forward with anecdotes about Biden's memory lapses. 'I never saw anything I thought was unusual,' Clyburn said. 'I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job.' Axios on Friday published audio from a 2023 meeting between Biden and special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating the then-president's handling of classified documents between Biden's time as vice president and his presidential election. It showed Biden's apparent difficulties in answering questions about documents and remembering important dates. Clyburn acknowledged he was 'concerned' by Biden's stilted performance in his only debate against President Trump last year, which was a catalyst for Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race just months before Election Day, but he said he considered outside factors that Biden faced. 'A lot of us were a bit concerned about his schedule in the run-up to the debate,' he said. 'And I called it at the time 'preparation overload,' because they were cramming at the end, into a four- or five-day period, preparation for the debate.' 'The question is, is this a condition, or is this an incident?' Clyburn added. 'These kinds of concerns are out there, but none of us thought that there was anything here that created any suspicions of any prolonged condition.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic Congressman Argues Biden Was Fit To Be President ‘All The Way Through January 2029'
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) revealed that he still has faith that former President Joe Biden would've been fit to be president again for another four-year term. While appearing on Sunday's episode of CNN's 'State of the Union,' the congressman told host Jake Tapper that he 'never saw anything' that was 'out of the ordinary' about Biden's cognitive function amid a growing investigation into the 'cover up of President Biden's mental decline.' 'I talked to him on the telephone very often,' Clyburn began. 'And I never saw anything that I thought was outside of the ordinary.' Referencing his own father as an example, Clyburn said he watched his dad 'reach the age of 80' but declared it 'didn't bother his mental capacity at all.' 'So I never saw anything I thought was unusual,' he said of Biden. 'Did he talk as swiftly as he used to talk? No, he didn't. Did he walk as swiftly? No, he didn't. But that is to be expected.' Tapper then countered to Clyburn, whom he's interviewed frequently, that there 'isn't any comparison' between how 'sharp' he is regarding his 'ability to talk and answer questions' and 'what we've seen from President Biden…throughout 2023 and 2024…especially on the debate stage.' Tapper then questioned, 'Do you think Joe Biden really would've been able to perform as president all the way through January 2029 when he would be 86?' Clyburn replied: 'Yes, I thought that back then. I still think that.' The U.S. representative went on to argue that 'it's not all about age.' 'I've seen people develop Alzheimer's when they're in their 30s and 40s. So it's not about age,' Clyburn continued. 'It's about the ability to do the job, and I never saw anything that allowed me to think that Joe Biden was not able to do the job.' 'It's just that simple,' he added. Clyburn's comments came days ahead of the release of Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson's book, 'Original Sin,' which claims to uncover details about Biden's aides' efforts to hide the politician's physical and cognitive decline from the public. The book is set to release on May 20. Watch a clip from Clyburn's 'State of the Union' interview below. .@RepJamesClyburn on whether he still believes President Biden could have served another term: "Yes, I thought that back then. I still think that, but I don't know that." — State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) May 18, 2025 New Audio From Biden's Hur Interviews Reignite Questions On His Health Jake Tapper Hits Back At Criticism Of Biden 'Cover-Up' Book: 'Lies From Bad Faith Actors' Jake Sullivan Reveals His 'Shock' At Major Biden 2024 Campaign Moment
