Washington Post hammers Clyburn with Four Pinocchios for claiming Democrats never opposed voter ID

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A Lincoln Project member saying that failing to pass Dem voting bills will lead to another 9/11, a BBC reporter getting fired after sending a 'Hitler was right' tweet, and the founder of a liberal news site saying the right to own firearms is 'made up' round out today's top media headlines

The Washington Post Fact-Checker gave its sharpest rating of Four Pinocchios to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., for his claim this week that Democrats have never opposed voter ID laws.

"On the face of it, it seems absurd. After all, Clyburn has long been a foe of voter ID laws passed in his own state," the Post's Glenn Kessler wrote, before rehashing a history of Clyburn likening various voter ID requirements to Jim Crow-era poll taxes.

In an interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on Tuesday, Clyburn was frustrated at the notion that he had flip-flopped on the issue by expressing possible support for Sen. Joe Manchin's, D-W.Va., proposed voter ID requirement in a national election bill.

FLASHBACK: LIBERAL MEDIA HAVE LONG DECRIED VOTER ID LAWS AS VOTER SUPPRESSION, RACIST

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"I don’t know why you guys keep misrepresenting what I said," Clyburn said. "I have never said that you should not have voter ID. When I got my voter registration cards, I keep them in my wallet. And when I go to vote, I presented that every time. And I said to them, I am Jim Clyburn, this is my ID, and I want to vote. I have always had voter ID. And that’s why the representative earlier who voted … no Democrat has never been against voter ID."

That isn't true, as Kessler noted, such as when Clyburn himself spoke out against South Carolina's 2013 photo ID law. Under the law, if a person didn't have a typical ID such as a driver's license to present at a polling place, he or she can obtain a voter registration card with a photo for free. Also, South Carolinians can cast provisional ballots without a photo ID by signing an affidavit explaining why obtaining one wasn't possible.

At the time, Clyburn called it a hurdle to prevent Blacks from voting. He continued in that vein in the years since on photo ID requirements, Kessler noted, such as with his 2019 tweet that voter ID laws were "poll taxes."

TOP DEMOCRATS FLIP-FLOP ON ‘RACIST’ VOTER ID LAWS

In 2020, he called them "voter suppression."

"Clyburn is trying to have his cake and eat it, too," Kessler wrote. "He routinely decries ‘voter ID’ laws, but at the same time he insisted on Fox News that he has never opposed such laws — and that every Democrat has supported them. In reality, he appears to be against many types of voter ID laws — ones that require photos, or a fee for a photo or which favor one voting group over another."

"In other words, he’s playing word games. He supposedly is for voter identification but against most of the voter ID laws being adopted by states … You cannot claim one day that voter ID is a new kind of poll tax and then, on another day, say every Democrat is for voter ID," he concluded, before slapping him with its harshest rating for falsehoods.

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Clyburn and other top Democrats like Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams have done an about-face on voter ID as polling shows a broad majority of Americans, including Democrats, support showing an ID to vote. The provision could be part of a Manchin bill that's less sweeping than the For The People Act, which conservatives argue is radical legislation that would encourage fraud by ending voter ID requirements and usurping state election authority.