SC politician thinks Putin has something compromising on Trump, including video

One South Carolina lawmaker said in an interview Wednesday that he thinks that compromising material on Donald Trump is being used against the U.S. president by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn was interviewed by “AM to DM by BuzzFeed News,” and the Columbia Democrat who represents S.C.’s 6th District discussed a number of hot-button topics. That included President Trump.

Saeed Jones, one of the show’s hosts, asked Clyburn if he thinks “Putin has something over on Trump?”

Clyburn, the House assistant minority leader, did not hesitate to answer.

“Oh yeah, I really think that. I’ve been thinking that for a long time,” Clyburn said on “AM to DM.”

Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House and a member of Congress since 1993, then expressed concern. He told the BuzzFeed interviewers that the primary focus of all Americans “should be the preservation of this democracy,” which Clyburn called “very tenuous.”

The Sumter native also expressed concern about ensuring the completion of Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

He questioned Trump’s behavior while endorsing the special counsel’s probe.

“The Mueller investigation must be continued, and we, as American citizens, must get to the bottom of exactly what is causing this president to act so irrationally,” Clyburn said in the interview with BuzzFeed. “I don’t know of anybody, evangelical or otherwise, who will call this rational behavior that we are seeing from President Trump.”

At that point in the interview, BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief and program co-host Ben Smith asked Clyburn if he thought “the videotape described in the Steele Dossier exists?”

Again, Clyburn had a quick and emphatic response.

“Oh yes, I do. I’ve not seen anything that would make me come to any different conclusion,” Clyburn said to the BuzzFeed program. “Whenever you see smoke, you need to investigate it to see whether or not there’s a fire causing it. ... There’s a lot of smoke here, and when you see this much smoke, there’s fire somewhere, and we’ve got to put it out.”

Clyburn followed that insinuation with a warning.

“We cannot allow to let it smolder, before you know it, we’ll all go up in flames,” he told BuzzFeed.

Clyburn is not the lone Democrat in Congress to tell “AM to DM” that he believes Russia has compromising material on the president. Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, told BuzzFeed “I think it’s likely,” when asked the same question, if Putin has something on Trump, according to Newsweek.

This is also not the first time that Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democrat in Congress, has taken issue with Trump.

In December 2017, Clyburn “backed a measure to start impeachment proceedings against” Trump, according to McClatchy DC.

Shortly after New Year’s, he said he “staunchly opposed” the proposed plan from the Trump administration to allow lease sales that could lead to offshore drilling along the South Carolina coast.

“If the President will not change course, Congress should act swiftly to block this dangerous expansion of offshore drilling,” Clyburn tweeted in January.

Also in January, Clyburn pursued a censure against the president for his alleged vulgar comments on immigrants coming from African nations, CNN reported.

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 7:31 AM.