Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said late Wednesday that the media “twisted” what he said about the Jim Crow era during a campaign event earlier this week.
Donalds seemed to suggest while speaking at a “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” event in Philadelphia that Black families were better off during the Jim Crow era because they were “together.” He also noted that, “more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more people voted conservatively.”
Those remarks made the rounds Wednesday, sparking criticism from others in the Black community — including his colleagues.
Asked Wednesday evening by CNN’s Abby Phillip whether he regretted using that time frame as a reference, he argued that his words were taken out of context.
“Nobody ever made nostalgia,” Donalds responded Wednesday night, in an interview highlighted by Mediaite. “That was never the point. It wasn’t even about that. So where now I’m gonna get my backup is, I didn’t say that. I didn’t even insinuate that.”
Phillip followed up, asking him to clarify his rhetoric. The lawmaker, a top contender on former President Trump’s vice-presidential shortlist, pushed back, arguing he did not insinuate what was reported.
“What you are dealing with right now is a political environment where now anything I might say or any major surrogate might say is going to be twisted into the lens of race,” Donalds said. “That was never the point.”
Phillip replied, “but when you talk about when you talk about that time period, you’re suggesting that because the Black family was together, they were better off than they are now.”
Donalds said he “never” suggested that, arguing that what he says, he believes.
“Let’s agree on something: I am, you know, obviously, one of the better communicators in the Republican Party,” he said Wednesday night. “I know how to put words together. I do it very, very often. So, I’m not going to say something that I do not agree with.”
“What America is seeing right now, especially Black America, is the gaslighting that unfortunately does happen in politics, where you take my comments and you want to weave your own political viewpoint into what I say,” the Florida Republican added. “What I said is very clear.”
Donalds’s remarks from the Philadelphia event went viral and sparked scrutiny from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
The CBC called on Donalds to apologize to Black Americans for his remarks.
“This is a pattern of embracing racist ideologies that we see time and again within the MAGA Republican Party,” the CBC said in a statement, referring to the pro-Trump movement of conservatives. “Rep. Donalds is playing his role as the mouthpiece who will say the quiet parts out loud that many will not say themselves.”
Jeffries also blasted Donalds on the House floor Wednesday for his remarks.
“How dare you make such an ignorant observation,” the Democratic leader said Wednesday “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
Black Conservative Federation, a group Donalds is a part of, hit back at Jeffries, arguing his criticism of the Florida Republican was “tasteless, insulting, and quite frankly, unbecoming” of a lower chamber leader.
“For generations, the Democrat Party has overpromised and under-delivered on its promises to Black America,” Diante Johnson, the federation’s president, said in a statement. “Byron is correct that Black families were unified before being separated and destroyed by the Biden crime bill and numerous failed policies of the left, and no amount of deception is going to change that reality.”