The media – not Democrats’ message - is to blame for his party’s poor polling numbers, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said in an interview Friday.
“I think the message that comes from the Democratic Party is a good message,” Rep. Clyburn said when MSNBC’s Ali Velshi asked him about “the fact that there is not a cohesive message coming from the Democratic Party.”
The problem is that Democrats rely on the media – and the media is unfairly portraying them – Rep. Clyburn said, targeting even the ultra-leftist Washington Post:
“The problem we’ve got is that we have to depend upon the media to deliver it.
“If we have the Washington Post, for instance, caving to this wannabe dictator [Republican Pres. Trump], and we've got other media entities that seem to rather push a narrative that will bring eyes to their newspapers or to their television sets and not really give a fair hearing or reporting to what we're doing.”
Clyburn said he’ll be explaining Democrats’ message in three upcoming town halls and that he needs the media to sell that message to the public:
“It's going to be very a little bit alarming, but it's going to be a message that I think everybody will understand if they were to hear it.
“And I have to rely upon people like yourself.”
The Democrat also blamed the media for not doing a good enough job of discrediting his party’s opponents. “That’s what’s killing us as Democrats,” Clyburn claimed:
“[Y]ou've got people saying ‘We're not going to fact check, we're not going to worry about whether or not you're telling the truth and just let the reports go out there. ‘
“That's what's killing us as Democrats, because we don't have a stomach for just lying.”
“Several polls have indicated voters’ confidence in the Democratic Party has collapsed in recent years,” The Washington Times notes:
“A Gallup poll released on Thursday showed that only 25% have confidence in Democratic congressional leadership. Republican congressional leadership had a 39% confidence rating, which is largely in line with recent years.
“The low confidence rating for Democratic leadership is in steep contrast to 2021, when 49% had confidence in Democratic congressional leadership, and last year, when 38% had confidence in them.”