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President Biden is spotlighting his push for voting rights and honoring his longtime friend and ally House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn during a visit to South Carolina on Friday.
And for the president, the trip’s a homecoming of sorts to a state where he has deep roots and which vaulted him towards winning the White House during the 2020 campaign.
Asked how he felt to be back in South Carolina upon his arrival, the president answered “it feels good” after disembarking from Air Force One.
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Biden is addressing December graduates at South Carolina State University, a historically Black school in Orangeburg. The president’s expected to use his speech to push for a wide-ranging election and campaign finance reform bill that passed the Democrat controlled House along party lines earlier this year. But Republicans vehemently oppose the bill, which is stalled in a Senate split 50-50 between the two major parties.
President Biden is greeted by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., as he arrives at Columbia Metropolitan Airport on Air Force One in West Columbia, S.C., en route to South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“The president will talk about voting rights and use this speech today as an opportunity to renew his call in Congress to protect the sacred right to vote, which is, of course, under attack from Republican officials across the country,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on the flight to South Carolina.
Psaki said the president was expected to make the administration’s point that “Republican attacks across the country are not just on limiting who gets to vote, but about change and who gets to count the vote.”
South Carolina State University’s also happens to be the alma mater of Clyburn, the highest ranking Black member of the House and the only Democrat in the Palmetto State’s congressional delegation.
December commencement ceremonies didn’t exist at the school when Clyburn graduated 60 years ago, so the longtime lawmaker received his diploma through the mail. On Friday, Clyburn will march across the stage with this year’s graduating students, and he will receive his diploma from Biden.
“I’d almost walk to South Carolina to be able to do that for Jim,” Biden told WLTX-TV in Columbia, South Carolina earlier this week. “Jim has been a champion for all the things that matter.”
Clyburn’s endorsement and strong support of Biden during the 2020 Democratic primaries is also credited with helping the then-former vice president win their party’s nomination.
After suffering a fourth place finish in the Iowa caucuses and a fifth place showing in the New Hampshire primary, Biden was in need of a big win. Following a distant second place finish to then-front runner Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Biden secured Clyburn’s endorsement and rolled to a landslide victory in South Carolina.
Then-former Vice President Joe Biden is flanked by his wife Jill and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, as Biden gives his victory speech following a landslide victory in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 29, 2020. (Fox News)
“My buddy Jim Clyburn, you brought me back!” Biden said in his victory speech in Columbia, South Carolina in late February 2020. Three days later Biden rolled to a string of victories during the coast to coast Super Tuesday contests. A little over a month later Sanders – who was Biden’s last remaining rival – suspended his campaign and backed the former vice president.
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But the president’s ties to South Carolina extend far deeper than the 2020 election. Biden and his family have been come to Kiawah Island, on the state’s Atlantic coast, for years. And Biden was extremely close with the late Sen. Fritz Hollings during his years in the Senate.
South Carolina’s top Republicans were skipping the president’s trip to their state. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster didn’t welcome Biden upon his arrival in the state and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott – the only Black Republican in the Senate – weren’t expected to attend the president’s speech in Orangeburg.
