Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., responded sharply to MSNBC host Joy Reid on Sunday after she referred to him as the “Black guy” Republicans use as a façade to show they have support from African-Americans.
Reid, known for her critical stance against Black conservatives, criticized Donalds following his appearance after 45th President Trump’s rally in the heavily Democratic Bronx, which attracted a notably diverse audience.
“The one Black guy that Republicans love to roll out as fake proof that Black people, the Blacks, are MAGA, they’re MAGA,” Reid commented on Friday. “It’s a joke, and just as credible as when they said they were going to make that guy Speaker of the House.”
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Donalds hit back at Reid’s remarks, suggesting they were an attempt to undermine his achievements.
“I find Joy’s comments to be nothing more than crabs in a barrel,” Donalds told Shannon Bream. “Just because I have a different viewpoint, different way of looking at the world, different politics, now, all of a sudden, I’m being used. You can make an argument that MSNBC is using her.”
Reid has previously labeled Black Republicans like Donalds and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., as tokens within the GOP. When Donalds was nominated as House Speaker in 2023, Reid dismissed it as a superficial effort to showcase diversity, sarcastically stating, “Any Black guy will do.”
In 2021, Reid remarked that Sen. Scott’s participation at a GOP press conference about opposition to a minimum wage mandate was merely to provide a “patina of diversity.” The previous year, she referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “Uncle Clarence,” referencing the derogatory “Uncle Tom” term used against Blacks perceived as overly subservient to Whites.
Donalds pointed out that the diverse turnout at Trump’s Bronx rally was a consequence of Democratic policies failing New York City and the country.
“You had a very diverse crowd, people from the Bronx, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Black people, White people, all there supporting President Trump because they’ve seen the disaster that is New York City,” Donalds stated on Sunday. “They’ve seen the disaster that has come to the United States of America because of the master of disaster, Joe Biden himself, and they want Donald Trump back.”
Donalds emphasized that Trump’s campaign is not focused on dividing Americans by race.
“We’re looking at expanding the political map, not shrinking it based upon race or anything else, because that’s what Joy Reid and Joe Biden and the rest of them want to do,” Donalds said. “They want to shrink the political map based upon previous dogma and racial lines.
“That is not what President Trump’s focus is,” he added. “His focus is on all of America.”