Dem leader Jeffries condemns ‘ignorant’ Byron Donalds for saying Black people were better off under Jim Crow

The leader of the House Democrats blasted his Republican colleague and vice presidental candidate possibility Bryon Donalds after the Florida represenative argued that Black families were closer under segregation.

“That’s an outlandish, outrageous, and out of pocket observation,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a floor speech.

Donalds, considered to be on the list of possible running mates for Donald Trump in the upcoming election, made the comments in an interviewwith The Washington Post published Wednesday. The congressman has long been considered an ally of Trump’s in the House and briefly flirted himself with the idea of running for speaker last fall after Kevin McCarthy was ousted.

“You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together,” Donalds told the Post. “During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.”

Donalds blamed what he said was the decaying of the Black family structure in America on former President Lyndon B. Johnson and federal programs. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, and is credited with battling segregation in the South head-on. In 1965, he used National Guard troops to enforce the desegregation of schools in Alabama.

Jeffries, the first Black person to lead a major party’s caucus in the House or Senate, called Donalds’ remarks “ignorant” during a floor speech later in the day.

Rep. Byron Donalds made the ignorant observation that Black people were better off under Jim Crow.

Fact check. pic.twitter.com/YAiOeaVzPD

“It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better off during