Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), campaigning Tuesday for former president Donald Trump, argued Black families were stronger during the Jim Crow era, drawing vocal condemnation from Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
Donalds, who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Trump, made the comments at a Trump campaign event in Philadelphia with Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.) that was aimed at Black voters. Donalds and Hunt are both Black.
The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Donalds as saying he was beginning to see the “reinvigoration of Black family” in America and suggesting that Black family values had been in decline since Black voters embraced the Democratic Party after the civil rights movement.
“You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” Donalds said. “And then HEW, Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are.”
Advertisem*nt
Skip to end of carousel
2024 presidential election
Get the latest news on the 2024 election from our reporters on the campaign trail and in Washington.
President Biden and Donald Trump both secured their parties’ nominations for the presidency, formalizing a general-election rematch.
Here are some of the key dates ahead of the 2024 general election in November.
Compare where all of the candidates stand on key issues such as abortion, the climate and the economy.
Sign up for The Campaign Moment, reporter Aaron Blake’s guide to what you really need to know about the 2024 election.
1/5
End of carousel
Donalds appeared to refer to the former federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare. President Johnson’s Great Society programs in the 1960s endeavored to end poverty and racial injustice in America.
Jeffries, who also is Black, gave a House floor speech Wednesday that castigated Donalds over the comments.
“It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better off during Jim Crow,” Jeffries said. “That’s an outlandish, outrageous and out-of-pocket observation.”
President Biden’s reelection campaign also drew attention to Donalds’s comments in an X post, posting his quote and saying, “Trump VP contender Byron Donalds claims life was better for Black Americans during Jim Crow.”
“Donald Trump spent his adult life, and then his presidency undermining the progress Black communities fought so hard for,” Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement, adding that it therefore made sense that Trump’s version of Black outreach was “promising to take America back to Jim Crow.”
Advertisem*nt
Donalds responded to Democratic criticism of his remarks in a video posted to X. He told viewers that Biden’s reelection campaign is “lying to you once again and they’re gaslighting” by claiming Donalds said Black people did better under Jim Crow laws.
“What I said was, is that you had more Black families under Jim Crow, and it was the Democrat policies — under HEW, under the welfare state — that did help to destroy the Black family,” Donalds said.
The controversy comes as Trump works to chip away at Biden’s large advantage with Black voters, long a key voting bloc in Democratic victories. Trump held a Bronx rally last month where he said African Americans have been “getting slaughtered” by Biden’s policies. Donalds helped introduce Trump at the rally.
Biden and Vice President Harris, who is Black, visited Philadelphia last week to launch a Black voter coalition and paint Trump as a threat to the Black community.
Advertisem*nt
“Donald Trump is pandering and peddling lies and stereotypes for your votes so he can win for himself, not for you,” Biden said.
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll from April found 74 percent of Black registered voters said they will “definitely” or “probably” vote for Biden, while 14 percent said the same for Trump. Trump won 12 percent of Black voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to exit polls.
Trump has a long history of antagonistic comments toward the Black community that Biden’s campaign has highlighted as Trump makes more of an effort to peel off Black voters. Last week, a former producer on “The Apprentice” — the TV show that made Trump famous — wrote in an essay that Trump used a racist slur while discussing a finalist on the show’s first season, which aired in 2004. Trump’s campaign called the account “completely fabricated.”
Advertisem*nt
During the Jim Crow era, Black Americans faced state and local laws that made racial discrimination legal.
Jeffries listed several reasons he said Black people were not better off during the period, saying they could be lynched, denied a high-quality education and denied the right to vote — all “without consequence.”
“How dare you make such an ignorant observation?” Jeffries said of Donalds. “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
Donalds received support on X from Hunt, the other Black GOP congressman who headlined the Trump campaign event in Philadelphia. Hunt wrote that he was present and that “I can tell you for a fact what Byron and I were talking about is the Democrat party breaking up two parent black families with their failed policies.”
