WATCH: Byron Donalds confronts Joy Reid on accusation he was GOP’s diversity speaker candidate
Jack Birle
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Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) pushed back on MSNBC host Joy Reid‘s assertion that his nomination for House speaker was about making a “diversity statement” rather than his qualifications.
Reid said it appeared Republicans “were looking for a response to Hakeem Jeffries” by nominating Donalds.
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“Do you not believe that the idea was to make a diversity statement by nominating you?” Reid asked Donalds on MSNBC’s The ReidOut Tuesday.
Donalds said his race never came up in conversations with people who supported him for speaker during the lengthy House speaker election last week.
“That was not the idea because I was in the room when the decision was made by people who chose to nominate me,” Donalds said.
“The reality is that a lot of members actually do believe in my ability to lead. They do,” he continued. “Am I to be despised for my youth because I served one term when members know I have the ability to engage other members? Listen, we were at an impasse in our speakership elections. We got that done. Kevin McCarthy is now speaker of the House. At the same time, I was working with members on both sides of our conference to make sure that we can get the job done, and we did. That’s the only thing that matters.”
In the midst of the contentious House speaker race, Reid had dismissed Donalds’s nomination as a troll move by some House Republicans and said Donalds “was willing to go along with it.”
Reid then confronted Donalds about his voting record on such topics as voting laws and critical race theory. Donalds expressed his support for Florida’s voter laws. He called them the “best election laws in the country” and continued to stress his opposition to critical race theory.
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Donalds was proposed as an alternative GOP candidate for House speaker for several rounds of the speaker election while some members of the Republican conference remained hesitant about supporting McCarthy.
McCarthy eventually won the speakership in the 15th ballot late Friday night.