'I like how everybody is shouting at me': Byron Donalds melts down at town hall hecklers

21 April

Rep. Byron Donalds at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 15, 2024 (Image: Shutterstock)

A recent town hall meeting by U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds' (R-Fla.) appeared just as fiery as that of other Republicans.

Groans began as Donalds explained how South African centibillionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was “going through every agency and they’re examining any contracts or lack of efficiencies in spending federal dollars,” forcing him to ask the crowd “are you going to allow me to answer the question?”

He attempted to connect with his deep-red Republican crowd by explaining that DOGE is acting “under the direction of the president of the United States,” but possibly made the tactical mistake of invoking the name of President Obama when he said DOGE’s investigation is little different from the former president’s own agency audits.

“This is something that President Obama wanted to do—when President Obama was—” he began before being drowned in jeers.

“You can boo, if you want to, but if you go back in time to 2009, then president Obama famously said he wanted to famously examine efficiencies in the federal government,” he said, before drowning under a second flood of 'boos.’

“What DOGE is doing is examining records. They are providing their findings,” he continued before a crowd was cleared of liberals and pro-Palestine protesters.

“They’re firing people!” one crowd member shouted, in video showing audience members getting up and leaving the town hall.

In other footage, an audience member demanded if Donalds had read the book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," by U.S. journalist Isabel Wilkerson. That book, published in 2020, links U.S. caste systems oppressing African Americans with similar caste systems in India, Nazi Germany and other nations. The question appeared to derail Donalds.

“Don’t [try to] educate me about my life, sir,” Donalds said. “… I like how everybody is shouting at me, the Black guy on stage … don’t marginalize my life or what I’ve done. Don’t do that, or marginalize other Black people … or other Americans … ”

DOGE protests were forcing Republican lawmakers to avoid town halls as early as last month, with House Speaker Mike Johnson telling reporters he believed protesters were "literally paid" by liberal megadonor George Soros, and using the town halls to generate "sound bites" to make Republicans look bad.

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