The Black Lives Matter movement is doing itself a disservice with "sloganeering," particularly the "defund the police" slogan, according to the House's highest ranking African American member.
"We can't pick up these things just because they make a good headline," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNN's "State of the Union." "We need to work on what makes headway, rather than what makes headlines."
Clyburn said he and the late Democrat Rep. John Lewis saw a similar unwinding of a movement in the 1960s with the "burn, baby, burn," leading him to be "very forcefully against sloganeering."
"John and I sat on the House floor and talked about that 'defund the police' slogan and both of us concluded that it had the possibilities of doing to the Black Lives Matter movement, and current movements across the country, what 'burn, baby, burn' did to us back in 1960," Clyburn to told host Jake Tapper. "We lost that movement over that slogan."
"We saw the same thing happening here."
Clyburn is largely credited with turning around Democrat Joe Biden's once sinking primary campaign before Super Tuesday.
"I"m not going to say he was our only one, but I will say I thought he was the best bet to go into the general election," Clyburn said.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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