The GOP candidate sat down with a South Florida rap legend and talked about the gubernatorial race and more.
The post Byron Donalds talks Jim Crow, ‘daddy’s back’ and Donald Trump with Luther Campbell appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds wants voters to know that President Donald Trump is not his daddy.
Donalds, a Naples Congressman, sat down for an interview with former Democratic congressional candidate and rap icon Luther Campbell. Donalds addressed a number of topics, including his belief that some Black voters judge him unfairly because he is close to President Donald Trump.
“I was at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in North Miami. After the service, a lady came by and was grilling me. That’s fine — that’s what happens when you put yourself in a political process,” Donalds said.
“The only thing I said to her was, ‘Ma’am, I feel like you’re judging me based upon the President.’ And I’m going to start right here: as Black people, we don’t like to be stereotyped. So don’t stereotype me; let my words be my words,” he added.
“If you feel I’ve said something you don’t agree with, OK, that’s fine. But to be skeptical of me just because I’m close to the President of the United States — and assume I’m not my own person — I think that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Donalds also said his “daddy’s back” comment about Trump was a misinterpreted joke.
“Joe Biden was asleep at the wheel. Nobody was running the federal government. I was there through all four years of Joe Biden’s presidency on Capitol Hill. So yeah, I was just being flippant. I was like, yeah, it seems like he’s back. Period. That’s what I said. But, you know, do I think he’s my daddy? No,” Donalds said.
Donalds also addressed what he believes is an unfair interpretation of comments he made as a 2024 campaign surrogate for Trump that said the Black family was more cohesive under Jim Crow segregation.
“What I was talking about was the era. What happened politically was the Biden team and Hakeem Jeffries saw it, and they put it out there like I was eulogizing or wanting Jim Crow to come back. That’s crazy. Why would I want that? That was a terrible time for Black people in our country, even though marriage rates were significantly higher during that era. I was really talking about family formation, and I was talking about marriage rates,” Donalds said.
He then suggested he was surprised by the framing.
“You know what’s funny about that day? We were in a cigar shop in Philadelphia when this was happening, and the room was full of Black people. I made a comment, and nobody in the room was like, ‘How dare you? What did you just say?’ Nobody. And it was mixed company; it wasn’t all Republicans in the room,” Donalds said.
“The reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer actually reported correctly what I said. So I saw the article, and I was like, ‘OK,’ and I just moved on. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that my communications team came to me and said, ‘The Biden team came out and said that you support Jim Crow.’ I was like, ‘What? That’s crazy. I never said that.’ And so that’s where it all came from.”
The post Byron Donalds talks Jim Crow, ‘daddy’s back’ and Donald Trump with Luther Campbell appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
