CNN
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Republican Rep. Byron Donald of Florida, a potential vice presidential candidate for President Donald Trump, is defending himself amid criticism from Democrats over comments he made on Tuesday in which he suggested black families “stayed together” during the segregated Jim Crow era.
Donald’s comments were made at an event in Philadelphia with Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, another black Republican who has backed the former president, as the Trump campaign seeks to make inroads with non-white voters.
“You know, during the days of Jim Crow laws, black families stayed together,” Donald said at the event on Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“During the Jim Crow era, more black people didn’t just become more conservative, more black people voted conservatively because black people have always thought conservatively,” he said.
Its demise, he suggested, was due to a culture of dependency fostered by the federal welfare system of the 1950s, the creation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (a federal agency now known as the Department of Health and Human Services), and the subsequent civil rights movement under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s.
“Then HEW, Lyndon Johnson, went down that path, and now here we are,” Donald said.
In an interview with CNN’s Abby Phillips on Wednesday night’s “Newsnight,” Donald acknowledged that black Americans are better off today than they were during the Jim Crow era, but he also doubled down on his argument that black marriage rates were higher before some social welfare programs were implemented under the Johnson administration.
“All I was doing was referencing the period when we talk about the historical timeline of America and the Black family and the marriage rate of Black families,” Donald said.
“Nobody was creating nostalgia, that was never the goal, it was never the goal,” he added. “I never said that, I never implied that.”
Donald’s comments drew a sharp rebuke on Wednesday from President Joe Biden’s campaign, which reported on X that “Trump’s vice presidential nominee Byron Donald claims life was better for Black Americans during the Jim Crow era,” and were also condemned by other Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took to the House floor after the vote to denounce Donald.
“This is an outlandish, outrageous, outrageous opinion,” the New York Democrat said Wednesday. “We are better off than we were when Jim Crow laws allowed a little boy named Emmett Till to be brutally murdered with impunity. We are better off than we were when Jim Crow laws allowed black women to be sexually assaulted with impunity.”
He added: “How dare you make such an ignorant observation. You should examine yourself before you destroy yourself.”
Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement that Donald’s comments reflected a “repeated pattern of acceptance of racist ideology within the MAGA Republican Party.”
“Congressman Donald serves as a voice for the quiet parts that many people would not say themselves,” Horsford said.
Donald also responded in a video posted to X on Wednesday, saying the Biden campaign and Jeffries “need to check their sources and stop lying to the American people.”
“They say I said life was better for black people under Jim Crow laws. I never said that. They’re lying,” Donald said.
“What I said was that there were a lot of black families under Jim Crow, but the policies of the Democratic Party under HEW, under the welfare state, helped destroy the black family. That’s what I said,” he said. “I also said that we’re seeing a revitalization of the black family in America today, and that’s a good thing.”
CNN reported Wednesday that multiple people, including Donald, have been sent various levels of paperwork in the vetting process to become President Trump’s running mate, citing two sources familiar with the process.
The controversy over Donald’s remarks comes as polls show Trump is gaining support among black and Hispanic voters compared to 2020. Philadelphia, where Donald made his remarks, is overwhelmingly Democratic, but Pennsylvania is expected to again be one of the most important battleground states in the November election.
The Biden campaign seized on Donald’s Philadelphia remarks to attack Trump and his outreach to black voters. “From promoting his face to peddling fake sneakers, Trump and his campaign have shown black Americans how little they value us. This November, black voters will show Trump, his allies and his racist policies how little they value us,” campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitica said in a statement.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Kit Maher, Aaron Perish, Haley Talbot and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.
