Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) defended Donald Trump on Sunday after the former president suggested that Black people would vote for him because like him, they get indicted a lot.
Trump said Friday during the Black Conservative Federation Honors Gala in Columbia, South Carolina that Black voters are more likely to support him after his criminal indictments because they too have “been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as– I’m being discriminated against.”
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Donalds was asked by host Kirsten Welker if “Trump was implying that he can win black voters because they get indicted all the time too.”
“I think that’s part of it,” Donalds responded.
“When you layer on the fact that, yes, this is political persecution from the Department of Justice and from radical DA’s throughout our country, this is something similar that Black people have to deal with, with the justice system themselves,” Donalds added.
Welker fact-checked Donalds noting that, “all four indictments against former President Trump were brought by grand juries. There is no evidence that the indictments are political in nature.”
Trump has been indicted four times resulting in a total of 91 charges. The charges are related to Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office and obstruction of justice and his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election both at the state level in Georgia and on the federal level. He also faces charges in New York for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The trial for the hush money case is set to begin on March 25.
