Can Jim Clyburn Save Joe Biden Again?

Clyburn told the president to be direct with Black voters. Will it work in South Carolina?

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
Rep. Jim Clyburn is a co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, which is aiming for high turnout in Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary. Matt Rourke/AP

Rep. Jim Clyburn sat down with Joe Biden at the White House in December. Over the course of two hours, the congressman warned the president that how he delivers his message matters.

Biden was — and continues to be — struggling in the polls among Black voters, whose support he desperately needs in November. Those surveys indicate many Black voters don’t think Biden has accomplished what he promised. And Clyburn thinks one solution could start with Biden’s messaging: “You stay in this Senate 35 or 40 years, you tend to talk one way,” Clyburn told NOTUS in an interview.

“It’s one thing to hear what you’ve done, it’s something else to see what you’ve done. But in politics, the most important thing is for one to feel what you have done,” he said, describing what he told Biden in the previously unreported meeting. “Inflation Reduction Act? Nobody’s gonna feel that. Capping insulin at $35 a month. People will feel that.”