COLOMBIA, SC (AP) –
As they witnessed President Joe Biden take the oath of office on Wednesday, the majority of the Whip House Jim Clyburn said that former Republican President George W. Bush praised him as a “savior” for helping to elect Biden.
The South Carolina Democrat is widely credited for giving Biden the endorsement he needed to get to the top of the big Democratic camp in 2020 and win his party’s nomination.
Clyburn, in a call to reporters, said that Bush said to him, “You know, you are the savior, because if you hadn’t named Joe Biden, we wouldn’t have that transfer of power today.” He said Bush added that Biden was the only Democratic candidate that he felt could have defeated President Donald Trump.
Bush, who has largely been out of politics since leaving the White House, chose “none of the above” in the 2016 presidential election, but did not reveal how he voted in 2020.
In a statement issued after Biden’s victory, he wrote: “Although we have political differences, I know that Joe Biden is a good man” and added: “I offered him the same thing that I offered to Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success , and my promise to help in any way I can. “
Bush’s spokesman Freddy Ford downplayed Clyburn’s comments.
“We are not going to turn this into something more than it really is,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that the former president was “saying that Clyburn helped save Biden’s nomination … nothing biblical here.”
Clyburn’s fundamental endorsement before the Democratic primaries in South Carolina, it seemed to have brought Biden’s candidacy back from the abyss, after mediocre performances in other previous states. It was a sign expected by many black voters that Biden would be the candidate to defend his interests.
Biden beat South Carolina by almost 30 points, then overcame rival Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday and defeated rivals Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren in one of the most vigorous twists in the history of the presidential campaign.
Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Democratic representative in Congress, is the dean of the state’s Democrats and the third member of the US House of Representatives.
Clyburn said his support for Biden also emerged on Wednesday during talks with former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, nominated by the party in 2016.
___
Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.