Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds took time out during an event over the weekend to explain a testy interview he had in June with CNN host Brianna Keilar in which he said she attempted to portray herself as knowing more about what black voters want than he does.
In addition, Donalds said that he believes the network, in general, is still hung up on former President Donald Trump and as such refuses to discuss a range of other important topics such as inflation and the chaotic southwestern border.
Keilar also said during the June 10 interview that the 2020 elections were “verifiably secure.”
(Credit: Fox News)
“[She] tried to prove a point that she knows more about what black voters want than I do or, frankly, than anybody does,” Donalds said in response to Keilar’s claims during the interview that the Congressional Black Caucus has not extended an invitation to Donalds because his political views and support for Trump are “incongruent” with the group’s mission.
“Or that Democrats somehow know more, or that if you somehow supported Donald Trump or if you…objected to the election…that somehow that you aren’t allowed to speak for black people, and that’s the reason why you’re excluded,” he added.
“I think the reason why it went well is because I pushed back,” Donalds told Fox Nation.
“I wasn’t gonna allow her to set a narrative; I wasn’t gonna allow her to interrupt me trying to push in another point that she wanted to put in. I’m not going to do that,” he said.
“If CNN and MSNBC, [if] they want to interview me, I’m very cordial and very nice, but if you try to interrupt me to push in your agenda items, I’m gonna stop you dead in your tracks, and we’re going to get back to the business of the interview,” the Florida Republican and businessman continued.
Donalds said he is an occasional viewer of CNN, which has been seeing its rating decline significantly since Trump left office in January, but added: “The people at CNN — they have an agenda, they have a political agenda.”
“Let’s be very clear. They have a political viewpoint; the political viewpoint moves forward on everything they report,” said Donalds.
“And it’s not just the anchors. It’s the producers, and it’s the people at the top of the organization.”
He went on to mention other subjects that he believes should be covered other than Trump.
“Our border is a mess, people aren’t going back to work, you see what’s going on in Cuba, you have the vaccine situation going on, there’s plenty of things to be talking about, not to mention mismanagement at the federal level and massive overspending and inflation going on, but they all wanna do is talk about Trump,” he said.
“So they do it to themselves. That’s not me, that’s them,” he added.
He then went back to his point about being excluded from the Congressional Black Caucus.
“I’m a poor kid from Brooklyn, New York…I’ve been able to be successful in my life, so whether it’s talking about jobs or yes, even voting rights, or anything the CBC wants to talk about, I have a perspective being a 42-year-old black man who is come up in America after the battles through the civil rights movement that I think would be actually helpful, and a helpful perspective to the CBC…having a wide range of discussions from all sides of the political framework is important,” he said.
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