MSNBC’s Joy Reid went toe to toe with Trump-loving MAGA Republican Byron Donalds after his remarks about Jim Crow, but the entire fiasco was nothing more than an exercise in futility.
You’re never going to get any of these liars like Donalds to admit they’re wrong about anything, and instead it was an opportunity for Donalds to deny what he said, accuse the other side of gaslighting, and probably earn himself a few points with Republicans for “owning the libs” by being willing to come on MSNBC and snarl at the host.
Here’s more on the exchange from The Root: Joy Reid Calls Out Byron Donalds’ Ignorant Defense Of ‘Jim Crow’:
Joy Reid dragged Rep. Byron Donalds for filth after his ridiculous comments praising the Jim Crow era. On Tuesday, Donalds attended a Black Americans for Trump gathering where he stated that “during Jim Crow, the Black family was together” and former President Lyndon Johnson—and conjunction with welfare—ruined family values.
“During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” he said.
When Reid attempted to hold Donalds accountable for his disturbing remarks, he insisted his words were misconstrued. “I never said that it was better for Black people in Jim Crow,” Donalds stated on “The ReidOut” on Thursday night.
“This is where the gaslighting comes in…Part of that is when you’re raising families, raising kids, et cetera, you’re thinking of all the public policy issues, all of the economic issues, and it’s leading people to have divergence in political thoughts…The stuff that comes up about Jim Crow and twisting my words saying I was being nostalgic or Jim Crow was good for Black people, that’s all political spin. It’s a lie.”
However, Reid wasn’t having it. “The poverty rate during Jim Crow was 55.1 percent. More than half of families were impoverished. You also said, during Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative, Black people have always been conservative-minded but Black people voted conservatively. Black people weren’t allowed to vote at all during Jim Crow.”
Reid went through in painstaking detail what life was actually like for Black families during Jim Crow, the fact that they weren’t allowed to vote, and that Black men were not able to protect their families from rape or lynchings, but it didn’t make a dent in Donalds who continued to insist that the only thing he was praising was the difference in the marriage rates and having more Black fathers in the home.
Reid also hit Donalds for the fact that his own marriage to a white woman would not have been allowed, which Donalds admitted was true, but not without, once again, repeating his spiel on having more fathers in homes.
I’m not sure what Reid or her producers thought they were accomplishing with this interview, because it’s about as productive as beating your head into the wall to argue with shameless liars.
