Appearing earlier today on Morning Joe, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) was asked by Mark Halperin whether he was the favorite or the underdog in the House Democratic leadership contest between himself and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for Minority Whip in the upcoming Congress.
“Well I suspect that I’ve been the underdog most of my political life, and I probably am the underdog in this race,” said Clyburn. “I’ve only been here 18 years. Steny’s been here around 30. I have my friends, he’s got his friends. And the two of us are friends.”
“We are talking constantly, everybody is doing this in the open, nothing surreptitiously about this. So Steny and I have talked daily throughout this contest, and we are not going to leave this contest angry at each other. We’re gonna be in a good place when it’s all over, irrespective of the outcome.”
In addition, Clyburn stood by the leadership of outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is widely expected to continue as Minority Leader, saying that her leadership was not responsible for big Democratic losses in the House.
“We’re very introspective about this, and we are having discussions as to how we should go forward,” Clyburn said. “And I think that my party feels that this had nothing to do with Nancy Pelosi’s leadership. It had everything to do with an economy that was close to collapse.”
