Watch – Rep. Byron Donalds DESTROYS CNN Town Hall Panel for Failing to Address Key Voter Concerns: ‘Most Voters are Kind of Tired of Y’all’
‘Voters want to talk about inflation, the border, fentanyl, the debt ceiling, foreign policy,’ Donalds explained to hostile CNN anchors.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) walked into the lion’s den Wednesday and defended President Donald Trump against CNN hosts who claimed the former president received a fair shake on the network’s town hall Wednesday.
Confronting CNN hosts Anderson Cooper, Van Jones, Alyssa Farah, and David Axelrod, Rep. Donalds reiterated Trump’s stated positions on various issues, including the Ukraine conflict.
Refusing to be interrupted, Donalds took down each of their talking points and was also able to emphasize the town hall was intended for voters and the issues they care about — not solely for entertainment or to criticize Trump.
“Voters want to talk about inflation, the border, fentanyl, the debt ceiling, foreign policy,” Donalds explained to the stunned co-anchors, who seemed to have difficulty comprehending.
Read a transcript of Rep. Donalds’ exchange with the CNN panel, courtesy of RealClear Politics:
REP. DONALDS: Town halls are for the voters, not for the press, not for the person who is the moderator. Kaitlan Collins spent more time interjecting her viewpoints, her own views on a situation —
ANDERSON COOPER: Those are actually facts though.
DONALDS: Hold on. Are you guys going to interject your opinions here or do I get to speak now?
COOPER: If you’re speaking falsities, those were facts.
DONALDS: The town hall is for the president to speak to the voters of New Hampshire, not for this back and forth with the media. That’s number one. Number two, with respect to Ukraine, I totally disagree. He did not say he was going to give over Ukraine the way you intimate, Van.
VAN JONES: He did not say —
DONALDS: Van, what he said was is that he would actually look for a solution to end it quickly. He put 24 hours on it. But let’s be very clear, what Joe Biden has done has been a disaster because initially with Ukraine, Joe Biden wanted to give Vladimir Zelenskyy a ride out of dodge. He wanted to give him a plane ride and it wasn’t until people in Moscow, Ukraine, here in the United States said this invasion is wrong and Joe Biden reversed course.
VAN JONES: Do you want a victory in Ukraine?
DONALDS: I’m just trying to respond to everything coming up on the table.
Lastly, let me say this, we spent 22, 23 minutes talking about January 6th. We could have been talking about a whole lot of other issues instead of doing that for the first half-hour or so.
But let me be very clear. What was said in this town hall about national guard troops that were authorized by Kaitlan was wrong. I’m on the Oversight Committee. I was in two hearings on January 6th. It was testified in Oversight that Donald Trump authorized national guard troops on January 4, he followed up in a call with then acting Secretary of Defense on January 5 trying to see where the deployment was on those troops. That is testimony in the Oversight Committee. Everybody testified at the Oversight Committee when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, except one organization and that was the Captiol police because Nancy Pelosi would not allow it.
COOPER: Let me correct you. What Kaitlan was saying was what the former Secretary of Defense wrote in his book he said that the president did not.
DONALDS: I’m telling you, what he testified to under oath in the Oversight Committee that are the facts.
ALYSSA FARAH: Congressman, you do acknowledge Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, correct?
DONALDS: Again, are we going to talk about the 2020 election again?
COOPER: We are going to continue to talk about it.
DONALDS: Let me tell you why most voters are kind of tired of y’all bringing this up. Inflation. Border.
COOPER: You don’t have the courage to express your opinion about —
FARAH: I’m a Republican voter.
DONALDS: Voters want to talk about inflation, the border, fentanyl, the debt ceiling, foreign policy.
FARAH: American democracy?
DONALDS: If you want to talk about the 2020 election let’s talk about this. We do know that Mark Elias was in many jurisdictions suing to actually change election procedures, which by the way is at the hands of the state legislature in every state according to the constitution. Not in the hands of courts, not in the hands of the Supreme Court. The state legislature. We do know that to be a fact.
COOPER: You won’t state your opinion about factually what happened in the 2020 election.
DONALDS: You guys want me to make a statement. Let me tell you right now this is frustrating to a lot of people. You want me to state it the way you want me to state it.
COOPER: No, I don’t. I just want you to answer the question do you believe the election was rigged? I understand why some people believe it. Do you?
DONALDS: Moving forward to 2024, a couple things are very, very clear. The nation is a mess. Our border is overrun. Inflation is crippling every family, Republican, Democrat, independent.
Following his confrontation, Donalds tweeted, “The American people aren’t speaking about the 2020 election, a liable case after 25+ years, or January 6th. They are talking about the price of gas/groceries, fentanyl killing Americans 18-45, crime in the streets, & the fear of WWIII. CNN’s top issues aren’t America’s.”
The tense exchange came as President Trump scored a decisive victory Wednesday at the CNN town hall that was largely expected to be a setup, or detrimental to his reelection campaign.
