Jim Clyburn: 'Michelle Obama is absolutely correct' that America is not ready for a woman president

Jim Clyburn: 'Michelle Obama is absolutely correct' that America is not ready for a woman president

Jacob Wendler

Sun, December 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM UTC

3 min read

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday he agrees with Michelle Obama that the U.S. is not yet ready for a woman president, but he still intends to support women candidates.

Clyburn was responding to separate comments from former Vice President Kamala Harris — who writes in her book that sexism and racism played a role in her defeat in the 2024 presidential election — and Obama, who once again swatted down speculation that she may run for president one day in public remarks last month.

“As we saw in this past election, sadly we ain't ready,” the former first lady said at an event in New York. “That's why I'm like, ‘Don't even look at me about running because you all are lying. You're not ready for a woman.’”

Clyburn — an ardent supporter of Harris’ presidential campaign — said, “I understand exactly what Kamala Harris has said,” adding that he spoke with the former vice president last week.

“Michelle Obama is absolutely correct. If you look at the history, we demonstrated that we are not ready,” he said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Kristen Welker. “These are incredible women who have run — Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris. And I think that we are getting there.”

Still, Clyburn said he hopes for more women candidates to run and that he intended to support them despite disappointing results in recent presidential elections.

“Just because it doesn't seem that we are ready doesn't mean we should stop the pursuit. … And so we may be in a dark moment as it relates to women serving as president, but we may be in that moment just before dawn when a woman will serve,” Clyburn told Welker. “And in order for that to happen, they have got to run. So I want women to run. I'm going to support them.”

Clyburn, the only Democrat from South Carolina in Congress, also warned about the possibility that the Supreme Court could gut a key provision of the Voting Rights Act this term by prohibiting states from considering the racial composition of voting populations when drawing congressional lines.

His new book, “The First Eight,” tells the story of South Carolina's first eight Black members of Congress who were elected in the aftermath of the Civil War before South Carolina disenfranchised most of its African American population in the 1890s. Clyburn, when he was elected in 1992, became the state's ninth Black member of Congress.

The court’s conservative justices signaled in October that they would be open to reversing a longstanding interpretation of the landmark civil rights-era legislation, potentially laying the groundwork for Republicans to redraw as many as 19 House seats to favor the GOP.

“I believe that what we are approaching with this Supreme Court could very well result in the next century being one that will repeat that which took place in the previous century in 1877,” Clyburn told Welker.

About Our Ads

Source