Clyburn on the Midterms: ‘Fools’ Would Trade Voting Rights for Cheaper Gas

House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that he believes it would be foolish for Americans to vote based on inflation concerns rather than “voting rights.”

Díaz-Balart asked, “Congressman, what do you say to people who say Washington can talk about all these big programs and everything else, but I’m worried about the cost of food? I’m seeing the cost of eggs shoot up, chicken, gasoline, you know, coming now with the winter heating. These are all concerns that hit very directly to people.”

Clyburn said, “Well, let me make it very clear, all of us are concerned about these rising costs. All of us knew this would be the case when we put in place this recovery program. Any time you put more money into the economy, prices tend to rise. We do know that price gouging takes place, and that’s what we’re concerned about in Georgia.”

He continued, “I don’t know if anybody who will say I would rather pay $10 or even 10 cents, or even 20 cents less per gallon and allow you to take my rights away, my voting rights away, and these other things that we know the other party is doing to suppress votes. That’s a fool’s choice that we will not make.”

Clyburn added, “I came out of a household that had difficulty with voting rights. If you can take away my voting rights, just give me ten cents a gallon less to pay for gas, and you can have my voting rights. No people are voting on more than whether or not you run up the cost of gasoline.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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