The Washington Post fact-checkers recently gave House Majority Whip James Clyburn four Pinocchios after he claimed that “no Democrat has never been against voter I.D,” which is a head-scratching comment considering Democrats have claimed Republicans are racist for including Voter I.D requirements in election reform bills. But Clyburn went on to say that people keep misrepresenting what he said. It was a straight-up lie to Fox News host Neil Cavuto and fact-checkers called Clyburn out on it.
“I have never said that you should not have voter ID. When I got my voter registration cards, I keep them in my wallet. And when I go to vote, I presented that every time. And I said to them, I am Jim Clyburn, this is my ID, and I want to vote. I have always had voter ID. And that’s why the representative earlier who voted … no Democrat has never been against voter ID,” Clyburn said.
In an interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, Clyburn expressed his frustration on the notion that he flip-flopped on voter ID requirements and expressed support for Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposed voter ID requirements in a national election bill.
As pointed out by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, Clyburn previously compared South Carolina voter I.D laws to Jim Crow laws. In South Carolina, residents can use a driver’s license, I.D issued by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, a passport, or a federal military I.D to vote. If a person does not have a photo I.D, they can cast a provisional ballot and sign an affidavit explaining why they could not obtain a photo I.D.
Clyburn even compared it to the “post-Reconstruction Jim Crow laws that Southern states enacted, imposing poll taxes, literacy tests, and other hurdles to prevent blacks from voting.” He said that 55 years ago the 24th Amendment was ratified and they eliminated poll taxes, but that they are still seeing evidence of poll taxes today in the form of voter ID laws.
Clyburn expressed that in a democracy such as ours that people should not have any impediments to voting. He tried to make it seem like people were required to purchase an I.D and that amounted to a poll tax, even though the South Carolina law provides free identification. He even went so far as to call it “voter suppression.”
Kessler wrote in his article that Clyburn is trying to “have his cake and eat it too.” He routinely denies voter ID laws while telling Fox News that he has never imposed such laws. The article goes on to suggest that Clyburn may be against many types of voter ID laws, including ones that require a photo or a fee for a photo. One day he says voter ID is a new kind of poll tax and the next he says that every Democrat is for voter iD.
Kessler slapped Clyburn with four Pinocchios, the harshest rating for falsehoods, and wrote that he was playing word games. Some suggested that the switch occurred after polling showed a broad majority of Americans, including Democrats, show support in having an ID to vote.
As the 2022 mid-term elections creep in, more Democrats are voicing support for voter ID laws and flipping the script on their previous claims. The only reason Democrats didn’t want voter ID laws in the first place is that it’s going to be much harder for them to cheat. But this is the new normal for Democrats. They’ll flat out lie to the press, people, and nation without getting called out on it. It happened just the other week when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed that Republicans, not Democrats, have been working to “defund the police.”
Liberals constantly get away with it because they carry so much hatred and cancel culture for everything that doesn’t fit their agenda. But it’s time for them to be held accountable for spreading false narratives. It starts with Four Pinocchios.
