Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and arguing with co-host Andrew Sorkin, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) went on the counter-offensive to defend Trump as attacks against him swirled because of backlash over a comedian’s jokes about Puerto Rico at former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in NYC on Sunday, October 27.
As background, in an incident much freaked out about on social media and mainstream media, a guest speaker at the Madison Square Garden rally, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.” Team Trump said the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
That’s what set off Sorkin, who said that the “racist” joke and “vitriol” like it are why people don’t want to vote for Trump. He said, “The reason that they don’t want to vote for Trump is because they see, either in his character or the people who seem to support him, seem to be engaged in that or willing to engage in that, right?”
Continuing, Sorkin claimed that such “vitriol” isn’t present at Democrat rallies like those for Harris, saying, “Because what you don’t see, you don’t go to other rallies for Harris or see in a Harris rally that kind of vitriol.” Donald, expressing disbelief at that claim, asked, “You don’t?” Sorkin responded, “I don’t think you do.”
Donalds, firing back at that claim from Sorking, noted that far from shying away from vitriol of the sort Democrats and liberals claim to find reprehensible, she has been calling Trump Hitler as people try to assassinate him. Donalds said, “Kamala Harris spends half her time talking about her rival as Hitler, after there’ve been attempts on his life, not once but twice.”
Emphasizing that same point, he said, “She’s doing it right now. Every Democrat official at these rallies refers to him as Adolf Hitler. You got Hillary Clinton running around there hawking her book that nobody wants to buy, frankly, and she’s talking about how this is akin to 1939. Are you out of your mind? You want to talk about rhetoric? Let’s compare.” Watch Donalds here:
Commenters on X loved Donalds’ rejection of Sorkin’s claim about “vitriol.” One poster, for example, wrote, “Their playbook says only one thing: Call the opposition Hitler, then complain about the amount of division in the country.” Similarly, another poster said, “I could watch @ByronDonalds destroy liberal talking points all day long. He’s a very skilled debater, but frankly this just takes knowledge of facts. They’ve been lying for so long they don’t even realize what the truth even is anymore. LFG!”
Another said, “Sorkin calling the MAGA rally vitriol is the pinnacle is hypocrisy. Sorkin’s unapologeticaly left bias is evident every day on CNBC and it’s alienated many viewers. Comcast has ruined that brand. The rally was positive, inspiring, and energized. If Sorkin had any integrity he would be decrying the Hitler and Nazi comparisons. That’s vitriol of the worst kind. Glad Byron was the guest, he schooled Sorkin.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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