Unethical Quote #1:
“I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini, Putin, is Hitler.”
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C., slander President Trump and broadcasting Big Lie #2 on CNN yesterday.
Unethical Quote #2, same interview.
“I believe very strongly that this guy never had any idea about being — want to peacefully transfer power. I don’t think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections.I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue hold onto office.”
And I believe the two statements, lacking any justification, factual basis, or reasoning whatsoever, are signature significance for an official and a party that has lost all claim to civility, fairness, trustworthiness or respect.
The first statement is Big Lie #3: “Trump Is A Fascist/Hitler/Dictator/Monster,” itself a tactic rooted in the fascist playbook. It is also redolent of Joe McCarthy and the John Birch Society, among other smear merchants. There can be no meaningful cooperation with a party that permits its leadership to use irresponsible rhetoric like this.
I believe that Clyburn has marked himself as an irredeemable asshole, and I, unlike him, have evidence to justify that belief, like this statement, which is self-rebutting. If the President were Mussolini, Putin, or Hitler, he would have vanished last night, and the official statement of the administration would be “James Clyburn? Never heard of him.”
The second quote is just as baseless, but far more sinister. I believe that it comes dangerously close to sedition. Clyburn, and Biden, and all of the members of the Axis of Unethical Conduct (Democrats, the “resistance” and the news media) pushing this false and divisive rhetoric are attempting to encourage the public to distrust the election results, paving the way for Democrats, not Trump, to refuse to accept the results of the election.
Clyburn isn’t merely a disgrace, he’s a villain. No party that allows such an individual among its leadership is worthy of trust.
Ethics Alarms 
“. I believe that it comes dangerously close to sedition. Clyburn, and Biden, and all of the members of the Axis of Unethical Conduct (Democrats, the “resistance” and the news media) pushing this false and divisive rhetoric are attempting to encourage the public to distrust the election results, paving the way for Democrats, not Trump, to refuse to accept the results of the election..”
Bingo.
And they’re doing it while, at the same time, denying that the election can be tampered with using mail-in ballots.
Jack: “If the President were Mussolini, Putin, or Hitler”
Clyburn: “I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini, Putin, is Hitler.”
For what it is worth (maybe nothing), he is drawing an analogy in the form of Trump is to Mussolini as Putin is to Hitler. Or, more clearly phrased, Trump is the Mussolini to Putin’s Hitler. The point being that Trump is Putin’s toady, not that Trump is “Mussolini, Putin, or Hitler.”
Of course, the selection of the analogue is damning itself. Had the relationship been that of Barney Fife to Andy Griffith, Trump might look more sympathetic.
-Jut
How do you get that translation?
Here’s the whole section:
DANA BASH: You said that you don’t think President Trump would be willing to give up his office and that — quote — “He thinks that the American people will be duped by him, like the people of Germany were duped by Adolf Hitler.”
Do you really think Donald Trump is comparable to Adolf Hitler?
CLYBURN: What I said, starting about two-and-a-half, maybe three years ago, after one of his State of the Unions, that I feel very strongly that this man has taken on strong-arm tactics.
And I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini, Putin, is Hitler. I said that back then, and I believe that.
I believe very strongly that this guy never had any idea about being — want to peacefully transfer power. I don’t think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections.
I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue hold onto office.
He is given a quote in which he compares Trump to Hitler. He does not deny it. He says he still believes it. The transcript puts a comma after Putin. If he said, and was quoted as, “Trump is Mussolini, Putin is Hitler, that would be clearer, but he still begins with not disavowing a quote where he says Trump is like Hitler, and the second quote is attributing to Trump the conduct of Putin and Hitler.
I was just going off your shorter quote. With more context, I would agree with your interpretation.
-Jut
I have to agree with Jut on this one. If you listen to the interview, Clyburn clearly speaks two sentences, “He [Trump] is Mussolini. Putin is Hitler.” The only copy of the transcript I can find is headed “THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.”. The way it is punctuated in the transcript cannot be parsed in a way that makes any sense. I think Jut’s analysis of his meaning is correct. I believe he is referencing the Russian collusion narrative by implying Trump is Putin’s stooge just as Mussolini was Hitler’s stooge. I believe he brought this up in order to avoid answering Bash’s direct question of whether he thinks Trump and Hitler are comparable because the only answer he could give to that is yes.
Shortly after the Mussolini comment, he does make at least one undeniably true statement, “I know a little bit about history. . .”. It appears to be a very little bit.
And the fact that he is asked directly about comparing Trump, not Putin, but Trump, to Hitler? And doubles down on his past statement, saying he believed it then, and believes it now?
Nah, Clyburn is not bright enough to make that analogy. Clyburn is saying that Trump is just like Mussolini, Putin, and Hitler. He is stating that Trump will suspend all rules, laws, statutes, Constitutions to remain in power, election results be damned. Generally, I am willing to give people the benefit of the doubt but Clyburn has eviscerated that doubt.
jvb
So comparing a sitting president to Mussolini is okay? Even if he is saying Trump is Il Duce and Putin it Der Fuhrer, that’s sufficiently beyond the pale as far as I’m concerned.
And, uh, Congressman Clyburn, do you think it’s a good idea for a guy who so closely resembles Idi Amin Dada to be calling politicians ruthless dictators?
I guess the rules don’t apply anymore. There was an unwritten “rule” of sorts where ex-presidents didn’t criticize the sitting president. Now, with Orange Man Bad, everything has changed. Obama, along with Biden, actively participated in plots to undermine Trump’s campaign during the election. When Trump won, he and Biden participated in state department actions to remove him. What a jerk.
jvb
The man is either extremely ignorant or totally committed to spreading lies and calculated falsehoods. He should be censored in the House but of course that won’t happen.
He is ignorant AND he is committed to spreading as much hate and disinformation so that Biden wins in November. Remember was Joseph Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
jvb
““I believe very strongly that this guy never had any idea about being — want to peacefully transfer power. I don’t think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections.I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue hold onto office.””
And now there’s a better than 80% chance that’s precisely what the Democrats plan on doing during the election and dream about doing as soon as they have power.
Anyone else ever notice when the Democrats try to smear Republicans as totalitarians they never seem quite able to choke out Joseph Stalin in any of these comparisons?
Hint: it’s because he’s one of their icons. Not problematic in their eyes.
How dare he allow himself to be referred to as “whip” – an evil instrument of oppression that was first invented in the pre-US in 1619. /sarc
Age at drawing of first government paycheck:
Mussolini 39
Putin 23
Hitler 44
Clyburn 31
Biden 28
Trump 70 (although I think he isn’t even taking the money)
One of these is not like the others. Trump will be the only one of them to have a career between politics and death.
Not exactly true. Hitler sold postcards of his mediocre landscapes on the streets prior to WW1. Mussolini was much more successful founding II Popolo Di Italia which started out as a socialist newspaper and became the fascist newspaper which was very popular in Rome.
You obviously didn’t read very closely.
I missed career between politics and death. My point was that Mussolini had a successful career prior to becoming a dictator.
I think I understood that Trump picks a charity each month to donate his paycheck to.
As society was beginning to slide into what I was thinking as a social justice warrior abyss I remember saying back in 2012 that if President Obama was re-elected that I didn’t think he’d ever leave.
I was wrong but I don’t think I was wrong about what I saw as his hidden vindictive character.
Everyone is welcome to their own opinion.
And I heard many times by my Republican friends (not fringe) leading to the 2016 election that President Obama would either delay/cancel the election or he would not leave. It is sad to see this as just one example where both major parties have lost their heads in search of gaining/maintaining power instead of working for the betterment of our country.
The “leaked” new video footage of the George Floyd arrest and death may lend itself to a different conclusion from the official narrative:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8576371/amp/Police-bodycam-footage-shows-moment-moment-arrest-George-Floyd-time.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top&__twitter_impression=true
Clyburn also compared federal law enforcement agents to the Gestapo.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jim-clyburn-compares-federal-officers-in-portland-to-nazi-gestapo
I remember when senior Democratic leaders- not just random spokesholes- were claiming that the mere deployment of federal law enforcement to protect a courthouse was somehow fascist and totalitarian. This started over two weeks ago.
I must ask this, Jack. Speaker Pelosi calling federal law enforcement stormtroopers has to be the Unethical Quote of the Year to date.
And yet, you have not published a single post on this subject.
Why?
I have been waiting for over two weeks now!