Rep. Byron Donalds Grilled For Defending Trump’s Racist Attacks On Harris

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) faced intense grilling on Sunday for refusing to condemn former President Donald Trump’s repeated questioning of Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity, at times even echoing the Republican presidential candidate’s racist talking points about the proudly biracial presumptive Democratic nominee.

Trump has been outwardly racist for decades now, but made headlines earlier this week after saying at an annual convention for Black journalists that Harris “happened to turn Black,” questioning how she could identify as both Indian American and Black. The former president has since doubled down on his comments that have now been adopted by his running mate and the far right, while other Republicans feel that their candidate should focus less on Harris’ racial identity and more on her policy positions.

Donalds, a Trump ally, tried multiple times to move on from questions regarding the GOP candidate’s comments without denouncing them during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” But host George Stephanopoulos continued to press the congressman, who is Black, over why he could not simply say the former president’s questioning of Harris’ racial identity is wrong.

“This is really a phony controversy. I don’t really care, most people don’t,” Donalds said. “But if we’re going to be accurate, when 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 her father’s heritage and her Black identity,” he continued before trying to pivot to what the Republican Party sees as