'I'm beginning to see what happened in Germany back in the 1930s': House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn compares Trump to Hitler and warns he's trying to become a dictator
House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn has compared the current attempts by the Republican party to contest the election results to 'what Hitler did in Germany'.
The South Carolina congressman was speaking with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Tuesday night when he claimed that he's beginning to see similarities between 1930s Germany and Trump's America.
The 80-year-old politician, who was born a year after the start of World War II, asked how a person elected could suddenly be given the 'authority to be a dictator'.
And he claimed that both Hitler and Trump 'discredited the news media' in attempts to get their way.
Yet he remained optimistic that the GOP would quickly end the 'foolishness' or else, Americans are less 'intelligent than I think they are'.
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House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn compared the current attempts by the Republican party to contest the election results to 'what Hitler did in Germany' during a CNN interview Tuesday
.@WhipClyburn (D-SC): “I’m beginning to see what happened in Germany back in the 1930s … I cannot see that happening here. It may happen, but if it did that means that the American people are much more — less, I should say, intelligent than I think they are.” pic.twitter.com/5sIut7r3Wh
— The Recount (@therecount) November 11, 2020
.@WhipClyburn (D-SC): “I’m beginning to see what happened in Germany back in the 1930s … I cannot see that happening here. It may happen, but if it did that means that the American people are much more — less, I should say, intelligent than I think they are.” pic.twitter.com/5sIut7r3Wh
'I'm beginning to see what happened in Germany back in the 1930s, I never thought that would happen in this country,' Clyburn told Cuomo.
'How do you elect a person president and all of a sudden give him the authority to be a dictator. That's what we're dealing with around here.
'That's what Hitler did in Germany. He was elected Chancellor and then because he successfully discredited the news media, took over the churches,' the congressman continued.
'I cannot see that happening here. It may happen, but if it did that means that the American people are much more — less, I should say, intelligent than I think they are.'
Earlier in the show, Clyburn told Cuomo that he doesn't 'think it's going to get any more ugly than it already has been'.
'I think that you'll see very soon, more and more Republicans coming to the realization that this country is more important than any one person,' he claimed.
'What is happening now is one person who felt that he was above the Constitution of the country, that he was more important than any other person in his party, and I think there will be more and more people in the Republican party coming forward to say enough is enough.'
Yet he said that if the claims of election fraud were not ended soon, and the peaceful transition properly begun, it could lead to further problems.
'We are really at the edge of a real catastrophic consequences if we do not stop this foolishness, get this country back together, get this economy going again,' he alleged.
'Let's get our kids back in schools, let’s get people back to work, let's get health restored into the American people. We cannot do this following the dictates of any one person. We’re got to do it as an elective here in this country.'
Clyburn told Chris Cuomo on Tuesday that he believed the 'foolishness' about the election result would stop soon and that more and more Republicans would speak out to end it
Joe Biden looks on as U.S. Rep. and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) announces his endorsement for him ahead of the Democratic primaries in February 2020
He added that he believes many within the Republican party do not support Trump and that his base is not the same group of people as the GOP.
'When it comes down to the Republican party, the Republican party is a big party of what makes this country go,' he said.
'Those people who really work to make this country go are not going to stand idly by and watch it cave in.
'I do believe there will be a lot of phone calls very soon saying to my friends on the Republican side, we've gone fair enough now, it's time to reign this in and get this country moving again so I think that Joe Biden knows a bit about who he's talking about here.'
Clyburn accused the GOP of hypocrisy, however, and said it was the Democrats who always took the higher ground.
'Nobody should have been as upset as Al Gore in 2000 - 227 votes - he still took the high road. Hillary Clinton took the high road, my party has always done that,' Clyburn concluded.
Cyburn accused President Trump, pictured, of considering himself 'above the Constitution of the country, that he was more important than any other person in his party'
'A guy who always saw himself as Republican and gave me a hard time for being a Democrat, he's now telling me he sees what I've been telling him, the hypocrisy here is so great.
'More and more people are going to see it, they are more about preserving themselves than they are about preserving the integrity of their democracy.'
Clyburn's claims that the Republican party would soon end the challenges to the election came as Trump campaign representatives and leaders of the Republican National Convention said they would appeal the result until the end.
They pushed harder on their claims of voter fraud despite election officials failing to find any evidence of widespread issues.
Nearly 80 percent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the November 3rd election, according to a recent poll.
Most media organizations called the race for the Democrat based on his leads in critical battleground states.