(DCNF)—Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds accused CNN host John Berman Thursday of misleading his viewers on Republican nominee Donald Trump’s statements about women during a testy exchange.
Berman played an edited, trimmed down clip of Trump saying he will protect women “whether they like it or not” in reference to many women falling victim to rape and murder as a result of the border crisis. Donalds said the clip is “grossly inaccurate” and out of context, stating that Trump is promising to protect women from the various tragedies that have taken place as a result of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“John, that is grossly inaccurate what you just played. Play the full clip. Play it in its context,” Donalds said. “He’s talking about the tragedy at our southern border that led to the death of Jocelyn Nungaray. Jocelyn’s mother endorsed Donald Trump because she fully believes that if Donald Trump was president, her daughter would be alive. And so what he was talking about, I’m gonna protect women, I’m gonna protect children,’ and he was really telling a joke about how some of the staff said ‘no, no, don’t say you’ll protect women because they’ll take it out of context.’ Obviously, what CNN is doing right now, is taking it out of context.”
“No, no, no, you have the exact right context here, congressman,” Berman replied. “Congressman, you just explained the exact right context was with Donald Trump’s story was telling people how people close to him, his advisers were telling him not to use that type of language to say ‘I’m going to be your protector.’”
The CNN host pointed to former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticizing the Trump campaign for appealing to male voters and not sending a message that will win over women.
“John, you need to stop,” Donalds said.
“So you’re telling me there’s no concern from Nikki Haley or as clearly as Donald Trump said, from people close to him in his campaign, about the type of language that he’s using,” Berman said.
Donalds then named 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley and 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who all mercilessly died at the hands of illegal immigrants under the Biden-Harris administration.
“Donald Trump is going to protect women in our country. He is going to protect children in our country,” the congressman said. Under Kamala Harris, we have lost 350,000 children in the United States. We’ve lost them, John, talk about that. What I will tell you is once again, you’re gonna clip 5 seconds out of an hour speech and not provide context. This is why the American people frankly are frustrated with media because you guys play games, you take things out of context, you don’t explain them clearly, and you want to get caught up in some antics.
“The heart of what Donald Trump said, very clearly is, he’s gonna protect the women of our country because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have refused to protect the women of our country and a president should protect women and all Americans and that’s what he’s gonna do,” Donalds continued.
The former president said during a Wednesday rally in Wisconsin that his advisers believed women would not like him promising that he would protect them, leading him to say at the rally that he will protect women anyways if he is reelected.
Federal immigration law under the Biden-Harris administration allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “parole” migrants instead of detaining them for “humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” which has been challenged by many Republican-led states. Illegal encounters exceeded 2 million in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, largely surpassing encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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(DCNF)—Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds got into a near shouting match with CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin Monday as they debated Republican nominee Donald Trump’s rally in New York City.
Trump held a major rally at Madison Square Garden alongside several prominent figures Sunday night, which critics have compared to the 1939 pro-Nazi rally at the same arena. Donalds said on “Squawk Box” that these racism accusations are an attempt by the media to “fear monger” and argued no one at the rally agreed with comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.”
“To the New York Daily News: is it a racist rally if you have a black man from Florida who’s originally from New York speaking at the rally? I don’t think so,” Donalds said, referring to himself. “This is the problem with most media today. They’re too busy trying to fear monger everything instead of actually talking about the facts and the substance. It was a great rally that we had last night. Donald Trump obviously spoke last night, did he say something that was off color? No, he did not. I spoke. Did I say something off color? No, I did not. Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk, Howard Lutnick, did they say anything that was off color? No, they did not.”
The New York Daily News published a headline titled, “Trump’s MSG event turns into ugly racist rally, speakers insult Puerto Ricans, Blacks, Jews,” while The Associated Press wrote a headline called “Trump’s Madison Square Garden event turns into a rally with crude and racist insults.”
Co-host Rebecca Quick said many of the attendees and speakers at the rally have distanced themselves from Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico, which Donalds said he and the campaign disagreed with.
“Okay, so The Associated Press, ‘Madison Square Garden event features crude and racist insults.’ That did happen. You may not have been the one making them, but that did happen,” Sorkin said.
“And [Quick] just said it, the campaign has distanced itself from it, they do not agree, I do not agree. Unfortunately, it was said, but nobody agrees with it,” Donalds replied.
Sorkin argued that many voters who agree with Trump’s policies oppose him because of his rhetoric, and accused those who do support the former president of being “willing to engage” in alleged “vitriol.”
“Kamala Harris spends half of her time talking about her rival as Hitler after he’s been, after the attempts on his life, not once, but twice. She’s doing it right now. Every Democrat official at these rallies refer to him as Adolf Hitler. You’ve got [former Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton running out there hawking her book that nobody wants to buy frankly, and she’s talking about how this is akin to 1939. Are you out of your mind? If you want to talk about rhetoric, compare. But let me go back. We are talking about the comments of a comedian and everybody’s gonna forget it in 48 hours. The real joke in America is the terrible policies of Kamala Harris,” Donalds said, saying Puerto Ricans are struggling under Harris.
“I’m not disagreeing with you on that front. I’m just saying to the extent that you can speak to those people who are out there now watching saying, ‘I agree with the Trump policies, but I just can’t abide by reading headlines like that,’” Sorkin said.
Donalds said voters have to decide whether they want to believe the media who he accused of being “in the tank” for Harris or live under a continuation of the vice president’s policies.