James Clyburn Dukes it Out with Mehdi Hasan on Defund the Police: ‘A Chokehold’ on Democrats

House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina pushed back at Mehdi Hasan on the “Defund the Police” movement, calling the slogan “a chokehold on the Democratic Party.”

On Thursday night’s edition of The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock, the host pressed Whip Clyburn about his comments deriding the defund movement as harmful to Democrats.

Hasan cited a focus group report that said swing voters “paid only a little attention to Republican attacks on socialism or defunding the police, which they viewed as divisive fear-mongering,” and that “Most voters have trouble describing a clear positive vision of what the Democratic Party stands for.”

“Is the whole attention on a defund the police really a deflection by the party leadership from your own failures?” Hasan asked. “That’s what your critics on the left would say.”

“That is absolute poppycock,” Clyburn replied. “I know what I’m talking about. I’m out here with the voters every day. I did a town hall meeting last night in Jasper County, South Carolina, and I can tell you, defund the police is a non-starter even with Black people, and if you don’t think that’s true, then look at the results of what just happened in New York City’s election. So the proof is in the pudding. I know what I’m talking about, I’ve talked to I talk to people every day, and defund the police is a chokehold around the Democratic Party.”

“And let me remind you, if you’re going to categorize left and right, I’m on the left of my party,” Clyburn said. “Nobody can call me anything but a progressive. I’ve been one all of my life. Met my wife in jail being progressive. So, come on.”

“Appreciate that. But Congressman, just on the specific issues because I know you care strongly about this when you say defund the police, I’m not talking about the popularity of it, I’m talking about whether it hurt your party. None of the candidates in the November House elections ran on defined the police. You mentioned New York, not a single New York mayoral candidate ran on defund the police. So I’m not sure why, I know why Republicans keep going on and on about it, I’m not sure why you seem to think it’s such a big problem for your party,” Hasan said.

“Ask Jaime Harrison, who was running for the United States Senate here in South Carolina. Just ask him. Ask Abigail Spanberger up in Virginia why I said it. I said it because it’s real. It’s a real problem. We should stop sloganeering. In 1960, ‘burn baby burn’ destroyed our movement. And defund the police will do the same thing to progressive movements today. This kind of sloganeering does us no good,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn’s point is supported by a number of facts. The focus group that Mr. Hasan cited was commissioned by the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and included a narrow sample of “white swing voters” in a handful of districts. But polling has consistently shown, as a USA Today/Ipsos poll did this week, a stubborn conundrum.

While a resounding 62 percent of respondents support “Using some of the police department’s budget to fund community policing and social services,” the sort of policy that many defund proponents say they favor, only 22 percent support the “Defund the Police” movement. And as Clyburn noted, Black voters oppose Defund by  60 percent to 38 percent, and Democrats oppose it 63 percent to 37 percent.

Watch above via Peacock.