Clyburn: Some Dems ‘Suffered’ Due to Handling Race Issues Poorly

Congressman James Clyburn (D- SC) was on MSNBC this morning and said there have been Democratic candidates whose campaigns suffered this election cycle because they were not properly prepared to answer questions about race issues. Clyburn didn’t name any candidates in particular, but was jumping off a discussion about Kentucky candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes and the suggestion that when she and other candidates don’t say out loud they support the black Democratic president, it looks bad in the eyes of black voters.

Clyburn said Grimes gave a poor answer that lacked finesse. He didn’t directly say whether that kind of answer looks bad to black voters, but he did say that racial issues are much more pronounced in the South, and anyone with political aspirations needs to be ready to talk about these issues. After all, Clyburn explained, “we’ve had some good candidates whose campaigns have suffered because they’ve not had good advice on questions like this.”

Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, expressed an annoyance that Democrats talk about race all the time and blaming it for so much. He picked up on Clyburn saying race is still an issue in the South (comments similar to what Senator Mary Landrieu said days ago) and asked why is that the case, when Democrats are doing surprisingly well in red states like Georgia.

Watch the video below, via MSNBC:

[h/t The Hill]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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