Donalds responds to MSNBC’s Joy Reid: ‘Crabs in a barrel’

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) on Sunday pushed back against criticism that he was being used as a “prop” while campaigning with former President Trump in the Bronx this past week.

Donalds — a prominent Black Republican lawmaker and close ally of the former president’s — defended himself after MSNBC host Joy Reid said Trump was using Donalds as a prop.

“The one Black guy that Republicans love to roll out as fake proof that Black people, the Blacks, are MAGA, they’re MAGA,” Reid said, in a clip played in a Fox News interview Sunday. “It’s a joke, and just as credible as when they said they were going to make that guy Speaker of the House.”

Donalds responded in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, saying, “First of all, I find Joy’s comments as being nothing more than crabs in a barrel.”

“You can make an argument that MSNBC is using her,” he added.

The crowd at the South Bronx rally, which Donalds attended, was characterized as being less racially and ethnically diverse than the surrounding area, The Associated Press reported, adding that there were still large numbers of Black and Hispanic voters in the crowd.

Donalds said that in the Bronx, “you had a very diverse crowd, people from the Bronx, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Black people, white people, all there supporting President Trump because they’ve seen the disaster that is New York City.”

“They want Donald Trump back,” Donalds added.

Donalds described the November election as a choice between two presidents, and he said he thinks Americans will select the one they think did the better job.