Byron Donalds Not Great At Defending Trump's New Birtherism
Byron Donalds Not Great At Defending Trump's New Birtherism
It's your Sunday show rundown!
The Republican Party is in full panic mode. Ever since President Joe Biden decided not to run, Vice President Kamala Harris has changed the race and even pulled even in battleground states.
The results are even worse for Trump when you include useful idiots for the Kremlin or guys who stage bear cub corpses in Central Park.
How has the GOP decided to attack Harris? If you guessed her race, you have won an Official Wonkette No-Prize!
This current line of attack really began when Trump made a disastrous (triumphant?) appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago this past week. In that interview, Trump claimed Harris suddenly “turned Black,” after having been “always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” as if she was a demonic werewolf.
While some Republicans pretend to be appalled for the press, others ran with this outlandishly stupid attack. One such example is Florida Representative and Trump VP reject Byron Donalds.
On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos cut right to the chase and asked Donalds about it:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Why is former President Trump questioning the vice president's racial identity?
Donalds, ever the coward and useful sycophant, tried to blame the reporter who asked Trump a question, rather than the old racist he defends.
DONALDS: Well, first, George, in Chicago he was responding to a question from, I believe, Rachel Scott. Like, this is really a phony controversy.
Because nothing dissuades people from thinking your party are misogynistic racists like a attacking a Black female reporter for doing her job.
Donalds then shifted to blaming the media as a whole for Republicans being racist twatwaffles, by purposely misreading an old AP story that Business Insider published.
DONALDS: [W]hen Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator. It was actually played up a lot when she came into the Senate. Now she's running nationally. Obviously, the campaign has shifted. They're talking much more about, about her father's heritage and her Black identity.
Two things:
Then-Senator and current VP Harris is not responsible for the headline used by AP. If Wonkette wrote a headline that says, “Byron Donalds Is the First Florida Politician with Shit for Brains”, it would not be considered the only fact about him. (It also wouldn’t be accurate when Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Matt Gaetz and Ron DeSantis beat him to it.)
The reason AP highlighted Harris as the first Indian American US senator is because, while being both Indian and African American, she was only the first in regard to Indian American. Hiram Rhodes Revel was the first African American Senator in 1870. Carol Moseley Braun was the first African American woman in the Senate in 1993. Harris could not claim to be, nor be regarded as the first for this part of her heritage, but she has never denied being an African American woman. She was a member of Howard University’s (an HBCU) Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus since she joined the Senate.
Stephanopoulos kept pressing Donalds, and Donalds kept doubling down, because he can’t be seen going against Trump in any way. This was apparent when Stephanopoulos asked Donalds about Trump saying in the same NABJ interview that he would pardon J6 insurrectionists who attacked police.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Trump also said at the convention that he would pardon January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers. Do you support that?
DONALDS: Actually, what he said is that he was going to review every single case. He even repeated that again in Chicago at the NABJ. Listen what we do understand is that the Department of Justice under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they did massively push up charges on people who protested at the Capitol, and some who rioted at the Capitol on January 6. So, what he's talking about is doing a case-by-case review.
You can lump it all together all you want but those are the words of Donald J. Trump. I'm quite sure on the internet, people can pull up those clips. They can watch it at their own leisure.
Stephanopoulos, not taking any shit from Donalds by this point, read Trump’s quote verbatim.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I'll read it to you right now, this was Rachel Scott's question. “My question is on those rioters who assaulted officers. Would you pardon those people?”
“Oh, absolutely, I would.” That's his [Trump’s] words.
Donalds insisted Stepahopoulos changed Trump’s quote.
DONALDS: Yes and - but you -- but you did not leave in was the rest of his comments where he said -- yeah, I would, but we want to look at everything on a case-by-case basis. That's what will happen, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No, that's actually -- that's not what he said. He said, if they were innocent, I would pardon them. They've all been convicted. He said he would pardon those who assaulted police officers. Do you support that or not?
DONALDS: Hold on, George, […] you just changed the sound bite. You just changed it. You -- now you added, if they're innocent, then I will pardon them. […]
STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't change the sound bite. That's exactly what he said.
Stephanopoulos reread the whole quote again and Donalds tried to shift into criticism of the Justice Department, only for Stephanopoulos to end the interview.
STEPHANOPOULOS: [W]e were talking about assaults on police officers. People who were convicted for assaults on police officers, which the president has said he would pardon them. Thank you very much for your time.
DONALDS: George, I just want to -
For transparency, and because Donalds insisted we pull up that clip, here is Trump proving Donalds is a shameless yet terrible liar.
Donald Trump and his surrogates are not doing anything to dissuade from the notion that they are all sweaty racist creeps and lying weirdos.
Have a week.
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Trump is a goin’ down, my friends. He will lose by 10 million votes this time around.
I wonder what Republicans are like behind closed doors? In public, they all act like they're trying to behave like a human by using a human operator's manual written by a guy who'd only ever done 80's-era VCR operator's manuals.