House Democratic whip Rep. James Clyburn equated President Trump to former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and contended that Trump will “install himself” as president again without regard to the upcoming election.
Clyburn has a history of comparing Trump to World War II axis leaders such as Mussolini and former German tyrant and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. In a Sunday interview with CNN, Clyburn leveled the serious allegation again and claimed that Trump has no intent of leaving office “peacefully.”
The South Carolina representative also compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler, suggesting that Trump and Putin are working together in a similar fashion as Hitler and Mussolini did in the years before World War II.
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 one 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 to hold on to office, and that’s why the American people had better wake up. I know a little bit about history and I know how countries find their demise; it is when we fail to let democracy and the fundamentals of which is a fair, unfettered election, and that’s why he is trying to put a cloud over this election [by] floating the idea of postponing the election. … This is not a perfect democracy, but it is better than any other that exists and I really feel that the fundamentals are being frayed, and if we are not careful this country will be lost for our next generation of our children and our grandchildren.
Senior Democrat @WhipClyburn thinks @realDonaldTrump won't leave the White House if @JoeBiden wins.
“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 to hold onto office." pic.twitter.com/9IbSE0BX9M
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 2, 2020
On Thursday, Trump suggested delaying the 2020 elections over the pandemic, building off his contentions that greatly-increased or universal mail-in voting would lead to widespread voter fraud as well as effectively disenfranchising every voter whose ballot is lost in the mail system.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump tweeted.
Trump appeared to back off his suggestion later in the day after the tweet sparked more conjecture that the president could try to delay the election in order to remain in office. Trump does not have the Constitutional authority to delay the election, which would take an act of Congress. Trump credited himself with pushing the media to talk about the risks of universal mail-in voting.
“Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!),” Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon.