Joy Reid tries to humiliate black Republican, asking if he was only nominated as a ‘diversity statement’

MSNBC’s angry race lady Joy Reid apparently does not believe that, as a black man, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is qualified to be speaker of the House. To his credit, the Florida Republican was willing to go on her race-based, Democrat-friendly primetime show to answer her bitter aspersions.

Donalds was nominated several times last week amid the raucous vote for speaker, as a small number of Republicans withheld their support for now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Not bothering to hide her hostility, Reid reduced the accomplished conservative lawmaker down to little more than a “diversity statement” — an interesting approach, given that her poorly rated show is the only MSNBC weekday program featuring a black host.

(Video: MSNBC)

“You have been in Congress for one term,” Reid said to her guest. “What were your qualifications to be speaker of the House?”

“Well, look, I think my colleagues, they recognize my leadership and they have seen it in many leaps and bounds —“ Donalds replied before Reid interrupted to ask for specifics.

The GOP lawmaker went on to explain that he also served at the state level and that he understands budgets and the long-term ramifications of legislative actions — all the while as Reid badgered him about his “specific qualifications to be speaker.”

She seemed determined to prove that Donalds was not intelligent enough to understand what the speaker’s job entails.

“The job of the speaker of the House, number one, is to make sure that the Congress is actually operating on time. It largely sets the agenda for the conference — I mean for the entire House of Representatives,” he explained. “It actually engages in negotiations with the Senate and the White House on major issues, key issues. The speaker of the House has security clearances that most members don’t have. You’re number three, obviously, in line to the presidency, and there’s much, much more. The job is critical. Oh, and by the way, the speaker of the House is also responsible for security at the Capitol — “

“So, you have been there one term. And you’re saying that you would be prepared after one term to do the job that Speaker Pelosi and others who were in leadership,” Reid responded, though she gave him little opportunity to answer her concerns.

The MSNBC host went on to point out that the Democratic caucus has more black members and is, therefore, more “diverse,” before essentially painting Donalds as a token.

“So do you not believe that the idea was to make a diversity statement by nominating you?” Reid asked.

“Well, actually, first, that was not the idea. Because I was in the room when the decision was made by people who chose to nominate me. That never — “

Reid interrupted again to say, “You still have not explained how — you have never been in leadership.”

“Hold on — are you going to let me answer your question?” Donalds countered.

“The reality is that a lot of members actually do believe in my ability to lead. They do. Am I to be despised for my youth because I’ve served one term,” he continued, when finally given a chance. “My members know that I have the ability to engage other members through the conference. But it’s even bigger than that. Listen, we were at an impasse last week in our speakership elections. We got that done, Kevin McCarthy is now the 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.”

Tom Tillison

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles