Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) dismissed right wing billionaire Elon Musk’s threat to primary Democrats in deep blue districts by funding a ‘moderate’ opponent.
“Oh … forgot to mention that I’m also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don’t represent them, like this jacka‑‑,” Musk wrote Thursday night on X.
Musk made the comments in response to remarks made by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, slamming the right wing billionaire over his threat to primary Republicans if they supported the initial bipartisan spending bill.
Asked about Musk’s threat in a CNN interview on Saturday, Clyburn said no Democrat is afraid of the threat.
“Look, I‘m a child of the 60s. I grew up here in South Carolina. I missed the vote yesterday because I was part of eulogizing the gentleman from very modest backgrounds who brought that flag down off the statehouse dome and started the effort all over the South to get rid of all of these confederate emblems,” Clyburn said in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
“We did that with a lot of money against us. When I worked with John Lewis back in the 60s, a lot of money and power was against us,” he continued. “We did what we had to do, and I don‘t know of a single Democrat who is afraid of Elon Musk‘s money because we stay close to our constituents and we will outwork him.”
