House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told "Fox New Sunday" he believes "democracy will be ending" if Democrats lose the 2022 midterms.
The big picture: Many Democrats, including President Biden, have said they believe U.S. democracy is under threat by Trump-backed election deniers running for office in the midterms.
- Clyburn walked back a previous comment in which he said a loss for Democrats would be the end of the world, saying he "misspoke," but does believe candidates that have denied the results of the 2020 presidential election do threaten U.S. democracy.
What he's saying: "Democracy will be ending. The world will continue to exist" if Democrats lose, Clyburn said.
- "The world will not end. The kind of world we have, the kind of country we have — we've got to decide how we want to exist in this world, and that's what we're talking about," he added.
Clyburn said he sees similarities between the U.S. democracy today and Germany's democracy in the 1930s before Hitler came to power.
- "I've studied history all of my life. I taught history. And I'm telling you, what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany."
Go deeper: RNC chairwoman McDaniel says Republicans will accept midterm results after process plays out
