- The Washington Times - Friday, March 13, 2020

House Majority Whip James Clyburn said he considers President Trump to be a racist and that the U.S. “could very well go the way of Germany in the 1930s,” Axios reported Friday.

Mr. Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat, made the remarks in a recent interview scheduled to air this weekend on the “Axios on HBO” cable program, the news site reported.

“I used to wonder, how could the people of Germany allow Hitler to exist? But with each passing day, I’m beginning to understand how. And that’s why I’m trying to sound the alarm,” Mr. Clyburn said in an excerpt released ahead of the episode airing.

The third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and one of the most influential congressmen on Capitol Hill, Mr. Clyburn has been frequently critical of Mr. Trump and his policies as president.

Mr. Clyburn endorsed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden right before South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary.

The congressman has also previously drawn parallels between Mr. Trump and former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on more than one occasion.

“Having studied history and having taught history, I can only equate one period of time with what we are experiencing now and that was what was going on in Germany around 1934 right after the 1932 elections when Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor,” Mr. Clyburn said during a CNN interview in January 2018.

“When I see and hear and experience what’s going on in the country today, I think back to that time, and I really believe that we as Americans had better get a handle on things. If we don’t, we could very well see ourselves going the way of Germany,” he said at the time.

More recently, Mr. Clyburn reiterated that warning while speaking to NBC News last March.

“Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. And he went about the business of discrediting institutions to the point that people bought into” it,” Mr. Clyburn said last year. “Nobody would have believed it now. But swastikas hung in churches throughout Germany. We had better be very careful.”

The full version of the recent interview with Mr. Clyburn will air Sunday on HBO, Axios reported.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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