A Florida congressman and potential running mate for former President Donald Trump is doubling down on comments he made suggesting that Black Americans were better off during the era of Jim Crow laws.
Rep. Byron Donalds appeared on America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer less than a day after sparring with Joy Reid on MSNBC, where he defended comments made at a Black Americans for Trump gathering that "during Jim Crow, the Black family was together" and former President Lyndon Johnson and welfare programs destroyed those family values.
Donalds told Hemmer on Friday he believes Democrats tried to "twist" his words, and blamed President Joe Biden's campaign, as well as the "terrible press," for what he called an "entire phony controversy."
"They are gaslighting, they are lying and so Bill, to be blunt with you I won't be intimidated and do an apology tour. I will stand up to them and the foolishness they are trying to concoct," he said.
Donalds later added: " I won't let [the Democrats] twist my words, I will stand up to them."
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But When Hemmer asked Donalds again whether he felt it was Johnson's Great Society policies that led Blacks down a "worse road," Donalds stayed the course, and said it wasn't about belief — it's an "empirical fact. The marriage rate in Black America declined rapidly after the passage of a lot of the Great Society policies. So it was destructive."
Donalds reiterated he stands by his comment, despite the backlash, and won't back down to pressure from Democrats.
I'm not going to let them get away with [lying]," he said. "I'm going to stand up to it. I'm going to stand firm on what I said because if you are going to talk about families, family structure and dads being in homes with their wives raising kids is good for black America, and it is good for all America."
The Congressman's decision to double down — rather than back down — didn't go over well on social media.
"There’s a difference between correlation and causation, so just because the marriage rate went down is not an excuse for criticism of the Great Society policies," one user wrote on X in response to the clip. "When reviewing the pros and cons of that program, divorce was not cited as one the negative consequences!"
"If you’re still explaining you’re losing," another user wrote.
