Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) recently called out ABC News host George Stephanopoulos for an interview over the weekend, which featured a tense exchange about Vice President Kamala Harris’ race. Stephanopolous lashed out at the GOP representative over his response to former President Donald Trump’s recent comments on Harris. The Sunday interview on ABC’s “This Week” addressed remarks from Trump about Harris’ racial identity, which have sparked backlash on the left.
During the interview, Donalds suggested that the reaction to Trump’s commentary on Harris’ race is a “phony controversy” that the majority of Americans don’t care about. Trump had recently speculated if Kamala Harris was black, questioning if she was Indian instead. In his argument, Donalds cited reports from the Associated Press that claimed Harris was the “first Indian-American US Senator.”
“It doesn’t really matter. The president mentioned it,” the representative said. He then drew attention to issues that are far more impactful to American citizens, such as Harris’ abysmal record with border security, which has allowed millions of illegal immigrants and fentanyl to pour over the southern border, which has had a massive death toll.
He continued, “What he also talks about far more frequently is the fact that Kamala Harris is the person who created this massive inflation which is destroying black families, white families, Hispanic families. It’s her failure as border czar that has left our southern border wide open. More than 10 million illegal immigrants coming into our country. Record fentanyl coming into our country which has killed more Americans than at any other point in the history of our country with respect specifically to fentanyl.”
Stephanopoulos accused Donalds of “just repeated the slur again” and pressed him as to why he was questioning Harris’ race. Donalds responded, “Well, George, first of all, this is something that’s actually a conversation throughout social media right now,” he said. “There were a lot of people who were trying to figure this out. But again, that’s a side issue, not the main issue.”
The host then lashed out at Donalds after his response, shouting, “You just did it — you just did it again. Why do you — why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?” Stephanopolous demanded that Donalds provide an explanation for his comments on Harris’ racial identity, to which Donalds once again turned the conversation on Harris’ record.
“George, now that you’re done yelling at me, let me answer. He talked about it on the stage yesterday in Atlanta for, what, two minutes? He spent more than 35, 40 minutes going after her record, talking about how radical of a senator that she was. She was the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. That is a fact. He talked about the job that she did as vice president of the United States. A job, I will add, which has been a failure for the American people. I know you guys like to glom on to this, that he talks about in jest or in a serious manner for about a minute or so. What you do not cover is the litany of failures of Kamala Harris. That’s what you’re not covering, George,” he added.
Watch the interview below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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