Florida Republican Representative Byron Donalds speaks outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14. On Sunday, Donalds addressed MSNBC host Joy Reid’s claim that he is a “fake proof that Black people, the Blacks, are just MAGA.” He dismissed Reid’s comments as “nothing more than crabs in a barrel. ALEX KENT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
May 23, 2024 Story by: Editor
Representative Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida, responded on Sunday to MSNBC host Joy Reid’s claim that he is “fake proof that Black people, the Blacks, are just MAGA.” Donalds described Reid’s comments as “nothing more than crabs in a barrel.”
An ally of Donald Trump and a possible vice-presidential candidate on Trump’s 2024 ticket, Donalds spoke at a Trump campaign rally on Thursday in the South Bronx, New York.
During a Friday segment of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, Reid commented on Donalds’ appearance at the Bronx rally, suggesting that the Republican Party was using him as a prop. She stated, “The one Black guy that Republicans love to roll out as fake proof that Black people, the Blacks, are just MAGA, they’re MAGA–it’s a joke.”
MAGA, which stands for Make America Great Again, was Trump’s slogan during his 2016 presidential campaign and is often used to describe his ardent supporters.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream asked Donalds how he perceived Reid’s remarks and whether they targeted Republicans or him personally.
Donalds responded by calling Reid’s comments “nothing more than crabs in a barrel,” a metaphor that describes how people can impede others’ progress due to envy or spite.
“Just because I have a different viewpoint, a different way of looking at the world, different politics, now all of a sudden I’m being used?” he questioned. “You could make an argument that MSNBC is using her.”
He continued, “The rally in the Bronx was amazing. You had a very diverse crowd, people from the Bronx, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Black people, white people, all there supporting President Trump. They want Donald Trump back.”
Despite the rally’s diverse attendance, Black voters generally remain overwhelmingly Democratic. According to April data from the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Black registered voters indicated they would vote for or lean toward voting for President Joe Biden in the upcoming election.
In the 2020 election, Trump received 16 percent of the vote in the Bronx, while Biden secured over 80 percent, according to the Associated Press. However, Biden’s support in the demographic and the region has waned, with a recent Siena College poll showing him down by 20 points in New York City.
The size of Thursday’s rally crowd is disputed, with The New York Times citing a permit for 3,500 people based on information from the New York Police Department (NYPD), while some estimates claim a much higher attendance. Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Newsweek that 25,000 people attended the rally.
The South Bronx, which is predominantly Hispanic (64 percent) and Black (31 percent), typically votes overwhelmingly Democratic, according to a 2023 report by the New York State Comptroller’s Office.
Donalds emphasized on Sunday that Trump, unlike Reid and Biden, is focused on “expanding the political map, not shrinking it based upon race or anything else. His focus is on all of America.”
