During a Sunday appearance on ABC News’ This Week, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) used President Trump’s own words against him when answering a question regarding the president’s recent praise of Robert E. Lee.
“I find it kind of interesting that the president is now glorifying a loser. He always said that he hated losers. Robert E. Lee was a loser,” Clyburn said.
Rep. James Clyburn on Pres. Trump praising Lee: "Robert E. Lee was a slave owner and a brutal slave master. Thankfully, he lost that war. And I find it kind of interesting that the president is now glorifying a loser, he always said that he hated losers" https://t.co/m7vKq1wOBl pic.twitter.com/h7ayAGv17E
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 28, 2019
Clyburn was asked about the topic because Trump, this week, was again defending his response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, after Joe Biden made the violent rally a centerpiece of his video announcing his entry into the presidential race.
On Friday, Trump said that Lee was “a great general, whether you like it or not,” while stating that the rally in Charlottesville was about the monument. “People were there protesting the taking down of the monument of Robert E. Lee. Everybody knows that,” the president said.
The congressman was referring to Trump’s often use of boastful talk about only liking winners and not losers to criticize and belittle antagonists like John McCain, who the president deemed a loser and not a hero because he was captured during the Vietnam War. “I never liked him as much after that because I don’t like losers,” Trump said of McCain.
