by Sharelle Burt

January 11, 2023

WATCH: Joy Reid Rips into Byron Donalds on Being the ‘Token’ of the Republican Party

Republican Byron Donalds (R-FL) was doing his failed House Speaker PR tour and got the right one on MSNBC’s The ReidOut.

Host Joy Reid was polite and cordial with Donalds, getting right to the point. Reid started the conversation by discussing the news, reported by ABC News, of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempt to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Eric Stallwell and Adam Schiff (D-CA) from certain committees.

Donalds immediately attacked Omar, claiming she spoke negatively about people of the Jewish community. “Ilhan Omar has said things that are reprehensible,” Donalds said.

When Reid asked him to dive deeper into said things, he was unable to answer.

Things went left from there as the veteran anchor confronted the 44-year-old politician on his House Speaker nomination.

After just one term in Congress, Donalds was nominated last week by three fellow Republican congressmen. After boasting of his colleagues’ belief in his leadership, Reid questioned if he even understood the assignment.

After answering to the best of his abilities, the show’s host asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“Do you not believe that the idea was to make a diversity statement by nominating you?”

She brought up the fact that some political colleagues were critical of his nomination, making it look like the Republican Party was using him as a “token” in response to Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Donalds attempted to shut the narrative down, claiming that was never the idea and he knew the nomination was coming.

“The reality is that a lot of members actually do believe in my ability to lead,” Donalds said. “I was working with members on both sides of our conference to make sure that we can get the job done, and we did. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Throughout the interview, the rookie politician dished out untruths on several topics.

He claimed social security will be null and void by 2035. As Reid shouted out “not true” several times, looking for facts, Donalds threw up the assertion that he is not only a politician but a finance professional, although his license for trade is invalid now that he’s a member of Congress.

Before running out of time, Reid decided to run through the list of his controversial voting records.

She confronted his co-sponsorship of two pieces of legislation opposing critical race theory.

“What is critical race theory in your view?” Reid asked.

Donalds’ said his issue is teaching the “controversial” subject matter at the grade school level.

“You are not able to have a detailed conversation of critical race theory at the graduate level.”

Reid countered that statement, asking if he believes students shouldn’t be taught about the racial history of this country.

The battle was cut short as producers gave the wrap-up signal. However, Reid got the last word with actual facts.

“Learning about racial history would actually be good for you.”

Watch the full interview below.


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