Clyburn concerned Biden campaign isn’t breaking through ‘MAGA wall’

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on Sunday he was concerned the Biden campaign was not breaking through “MAGA wall,” in a reference to former President Trump’s unwavering support from Republicans heading into 2024.

Clyburn acknowledged that the Biden administration’s record was not at the forefront of people’s minds.

“I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done,” Clyburn said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Clyburn, a long-time South Carolina representative in the House, is often credited with helping Biden’s campaign ultimately clinch the 2020 Democratic nomination after winning the Palmetto State that year. Biden won his first early contest in the South Carolina primary, after securing Clyburn’s endorsement.

In the interview Sunday, Clyburn said he has sat down with Biden to express his concerns about the Biden team’s reelection campaign, but stressed he was “not worried,” but “very concerned.”

Clyburn focused specifically on student debt relief to illustrate what he described as Biden’s commitment to keep his promises. Clyburn took issue with the focus that many have on the segment of Biden’s debt relief plan that the Supreme Court struck down.

“If you took the little simple thing as student loan debt relief, he promised to relieve student loan debt, and he has done that. But one part of his promise he was not able to keep because six Republican attorneys general and the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, stopped him from doing so. But he sought another way, and he has forgiven $132 billion to 3.4 million people in student loan debt. But nobody writes about that. Nobody talks about that,” Clyburn said.

“I’m still hearing from people as recent as yesterday that he did not keep his promise on student loan debt relief. And he has,” he added. “Eighty percent of what he said he would do, he has done, and is continuing to do it, and people don’t focus on that. They only focus on that 20 percent affected by that court decision, rather than what he did to get beyond the court decision.”

Clyburn pointed too to Biden’s record on the judiciary – noting Biden’s appointment of Black women not just to the Supreme Court but to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. He also pointed to his Inflation Reduction Act legislation, which capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. Clyburn noted his late wife died of diabetes and paid $800 a month for medication.