MSNBC host Joy Reid suggested Tuesday that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) is a “diversity statement” by fellow Republicans who nominated him for House speaker. (See the video below.)
As the right-wing faction scuttled the speaker last week balloting for the eventual winner Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Donalds was nominated several times as an alternative to McCarthy and received a block of GOP votes.
Reid zero in on the lack of experience.
“You’ve been in Congress for a year,” Reid said. “What are your qualifications to be the chairman of the House of Representatives?”
“I think my friends, they know my leadership and have seen it a lot,” replied Donalds, who promotes himself as a “Trump-supporting, freedom-loving, pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment black man” on his website. .
Reid grilled Donalds on the speaker’s job description, to which Donalds replied with the same accounting. He also appeared to promote a GOP talking point that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blamed for lax security that allowed the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the Capitol by a Trump-supporting insurrectionist mob.
Reid noted to Donalds that he had never been a leader and was not far removed from his previous speaker experience. Republicans “definitely look like they are looking for a response to Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.) in you because you have literally been there for one term,” he alleged.
Jeffries, who is now the first Black House minority leader, led the vote for Democrats in 15 rounds of speaker voting.
Reid notes that African Americans are more on the Democratic side than on the Republican side.
“Don’t you believe the idea is to make a diversity statement by nominating you?” he asked Donalds.
“The reality is that many members believe in my ability to lead,” Donalds said. “Will I be looked down upon for being young?”