Jim Clyburn: Susan Rice Attacks Are Racial Code

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November 20, 2012

By Luke Johnson, the Huffington Post

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said attacks on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, an African-American woman who is a top candidate for secretary of state in the second term of President Barack Obama, used racial code words.

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, may replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, when Clinton retires in the next few months.

The House member was asked directly on Tuesday whether there was a racist or sexist component to the criticisms of Rice’s appearance on Sept. 16 Sunday television, during which Rice said that the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks were based off an incendiary anti-Muslim video, rather than a terrorist attack.

Clyburn took issue with legislators calling Rice “incompetent” in the wake of the interviews.

“You know, these are code words,” said Clyburn on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “These kinds of terms that those of us — especially those of us who were grown and raised in the South — we’ve been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives and we get insulted by them.”

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