Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who is reportedly on former President Donald Trump’s shortlist for a running mate, hit back at Democrats on Wednesday, calling them liars for taking his words out of context regarding comments he made about Black families in the Jim Crow era.
“America, Joe Biden’s campaign is lying to you once again and gaslighting,” Donalds said Wednesday in a video posted on X. “Now they’re trying to say that I said Black people were doing better under Jim Crow. I never said that. They are lying. But why would you be surprised? Because they always lie. This is the same Joe Biden that said if you don’t vote for him, then you ain’t Black. The man is a liar.”
In addition to the Congressional Black Caucus calling on Donalds to apologize, the campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; and other Democrats slammed Donalds after claiming his comments insinuated Black families were better off in the Jim Crow era of racial discrimination in the South.
The Biden-Harris HQ account on X posted: “Trump VP contender Byron Donalds claims life was better for Black Americans ‘during Jim Crow,’” with a video of Donalds saying, “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people always have been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively. Then HEW [the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare], Lyndon Johnson, and you go down that road and now we are where we are.”
Jeffries in a post on X wrote, “Rep. Byron Donalds made the ignorant observation that Black people were better off under Jim Crow. Fact check.” He included a video of him criticizing Donalds on the House floor.
The Hill reported the CBC said in a statement Wednesday that Donalds “knows all too well” that Black people were not better off during the Jim Crow era.
But it was just a portion of what Donalds said overall at a campaign stop in Philadelphia regarding a burgeoning middle class among Black families in the past 10 years.
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Author: Paul Bedard
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