James Clyburn Basically Says Clarence Thomas 'Ain't Black'
Clyburn said he no longer stands by his 1991 testimony supporting Clarence Thomas’s confirmation and supports expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices.
SOURCE CHECK
TAP FOR WHYPJ Media is rated 41 by the site, and this page is an explicitly opinionated column rather than straight news reporting. The named author and attributed interview quotations offer some transparency, but the page provides little independent verification or counter-perspective.
- Track record — The site's recorded rating is 41, based on 37 stories.
- Source type — The publisher is classified as opinion, which lowers confidence in this page as independent reporting.
- Author attribution — A named author is identified.
- Transparency — The column refers to an interview and testimony but does not provide links or documentary sourcing in the supplied text.
The column quotes Clyburn’s televised remarks and provides some relevant historical context. It relies heavily on the author’s interpretation, offers no response from Clyburn or Thomas, and does not independently establish several of its conclusions.
HOW WE SCORE ↗The article includes Clyburn’s remarks but largely uses them to advance the author’s critical interpretation. It provides no response from Clyburn or Thomas and little context for competing interpretations of Thomas’s judicial record.
- Counterarguments presented — No response or counterargument from Clyburn, Thomas, or another source is included.
- Loaded language — The author uses strongly evaluative and dismissive language.
- Opinion vs reporting — The piece is an opinion column and openly advances an argument about Clyburn’s views.
- Source diversity — The article relies on a television interview and the author’s interpretation, with no additional sources.
The author uses explicitly partisan language, rejects the court-expansion proposal, and presents Clyburn’s comments as evidence of a broader left-wing expectation about Black political identity. The framing is strongly conservative rather than neutral.
- Language tone — The column uses dismissive and evaluative phrasing about Democrats and Clyburn.
- Framing — It frames Clyburn’s criticism of Thomas as an effort to demand political conformity from Black conservatives.
- Source selection — The story quotes the interview but presents no opposing interpretation or response.
- Headline — The headline characterizes Clyburn’s remarks in a provocative, critical way.
James Clyburn said he no longer stands by his 1991 testimony supporting Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation, saying he expected Thomas to uphold precedents including Brown v. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act. The article also reports Clyburn’s support for expanding the Court to 13 justices.
On Meet the Press, Clyburn said he did not stand by his earlier support for Thomas’s confirmation. He said he had trusted Thomas’s background and life experience and expected him to uphold precedents such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act. Clyburn accused Thomas of rebelling against his background and showing little sensitivity to his upbringing.
The author criticizes Clyburn’s remarks and compares them to Joe Biden’s 2020 comment that undecided Black voters were not “black.” The article also says Clyburn supports Kamala Harris’s proposal to expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices, and argues that his criticism implies Black conservatives should vote in line with the left. Those characterizations are the author’s views.
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SWIPE →Representative whose past support for Clarence Thomas’s confirmation and current views on the Supreme Court are discussed
Former president cited in a comparison to Clyburn’s remarks
Politician whose proposal to expand the Supreme Court is said to have Clyburn’s support
Part of a bigger story
8 OUTLETSOutlets agree that Clyburn says he regrets supporting Clarence Thomas’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation and supports expanding the Court to 13 justices. Left-leaning outlets present court expansion and broader reforms as responses to the Court’s decisions, portraying Clyburn favorably. Center outlets report his changed view and explanation in restrained terms, with little opposing perspective. Right-leaning outlets mostly cast his remarks as judging Thomas through race or ideology, while Fox News also includes Republican senators’ defenses of Thomas.
- ARTICLES
- 8
- OUTLETS
- 8
- AVG CRED
- 56
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