COLUMBIA, S.C. — House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn tiptoed Saturday around the public flap between presidential candidates Joe Biden and Cory Booker over the former vice president’s comments about segregationists.
“Look, if Cory’s satisfied, I’m satisfied,” Clyburn told reporters of the New Jersey senator when asked about Biden’s response to the controversy. “If Cory’s satisfied, I’m satisfied,” he repeated after being pressed if he thought the former vice president should apologize.
Clyburn, who has become a kingmaker in South Carolina politics since first being elected to Congress in 1992, hosted on Friday his self-described “world famous” fish fry. The event brought together 21 candidates vying for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination, who wore matching “Clyburn” T-shirts to address the gathered crowd and posed for a group photo on stage.
Clyburn, the highest-ranking black lawmaker in Congress, has promised not to endorse ahead of South Carolina’s primary election in February, telling reporters this month at the Black Economic Alliance’s presidential forum in Charleston that if he had a favorite White House hopeful, he would not share it with the media.
But Clyburn’s remarks haven’t dissuaded criticism that he supports Biden, a longtime political ally and friend.
“I’m just going to say it: Jim Clyburn is tacitly endorsing Joe Biden,” Bakari Sellers, a former state representative, 2014 lieutenant governor candidate, and Kamala Harris surrogate, told McClatchy. “Anybody who attempts to say that his thumb is not on the scales is just not paying attention.”
Biden and Booker exchanged barbs this week after the former vice president touted his work with segregationists while serving in the Senate, with each calling on the other to apologize for their handling of the situation. The pair, however, spoke on the phone on Thursday and appeared to be on amicable terms at the fish fry Friday night.
“No one should apologize,” Biden told CNN.
