During CNN’s coverage of Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary, Biden Campaign Co-Chair Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) argued that President Joe Biden is “a guy who stuttered all of his childhood, into his adulthood and everybody know[s] his stuttering is what caused a lot of his speech impediments, and we know that. It has nothing to do with his brain,” and that President Franklin Roosevelt was able to get elected and be a good President despite being in a wheelchair.
Host Jake Tapper asked, “Trump told that group of black conservatives that he was speaking to that ‘[Y]ou owe crooked Joe Biden absolutely nothing.’ He called President Biden racist. He attacked Biden for his role in the 1994 crime bill. You and I have spoken about your concern that black voters are not hearing enough about the good that, in your view, Joe Biden has done for the country and for the black community. Do you still have that concern?”
Clyburn responded, “Well, when I see all the gaffes, Trump had some cue cards yesterday or last night and he couldn’t get his own wife’s name right. There’s something wrong with Trump. And we know there’s something wrong with Trump, all of that meandering that he was doing today, but never see any reporting on that. If Joe Biden commits a gaffe, a guy who stuttered all of his childhood, into his adulthood and everybody know[s] his stuttering is what caused a lot of his speech impediments, and we know that. It has nothing to do with his brain, he stumbles one time and everybody says, he’s too old to be the president. Look, we had a president of these United States, I saw the rankings the other day, who [was] in the top ten, and some people got him in the top three, Franklin Roosevelt was in a wheelchair. It didn’t bother his brand. He got elected president more often than anybody else in the history of the country. He ranks as being one of the best presidents we ever had, not because he was able to walk, but because he was able to think and do so in a way that benefits the American people, benefits this great country, keep[s] us moving toward a more perfect union, not the foolishness that we’re getting from Donald Trump.”
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