For all the talk at CNN about how they welcome a “diversity of viewpoints,” respect for opinions that run counter to their political narratives is in short supply. That goes double for minority conservatives who don’t toe the liberal line.
Take the interview done on the network last Thursday with GOP Rep. Byron Donalds.
Donalds is a freshman congressman who represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District. He also happens to be African-American and a supporter of former President Trump.
Being a minority conservative is traitorous enough to the crew at CNN. But being one who won an election and supports Trump, that makes them Public Enemy No. 1, and that’s how Donalds was treated during his appearance on “New Day.”
Donalds was interviewed by co-host Brianna Keilar, who is white. The subject of the interview was a Buzzfeed piece that noted Donalds had expressed an interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), but to date had been “blocked” from the group, which is currently made up entirely of black Democratic House members.
The article indicated that Donalds’ vote against certifying the 2020 presidential election may be the cause of his exclusion. This would be rather odd if true, considering numerous Democratic members of the CBC have in the past also objected to certifying presidential election results, most recently against Republican Presidents George W. Bush (2001 and 2005) and Donald Trump (2017).
“As a black man in America, I’m allowed to have my own thoughts on who I choose to support.”
Rep. Byron Donalds
In any event, Keilar suggested at several points during their back and forth that Donalds’ beliefs “might be incongruent with the mission of the CBC,” mainly because he was a proponent of voter ID laws and supported Trump. Because CNN is a one-trick pony, Keilar played a video montage of Trump to try and prove her point that Trump was a “racist,” which if true would have made Donalds look like the black sell-out she was trying to make him out to be.
Donalds, however, did not rise to her bait — nor did he appreciate her interrupting him at certain points.
“As a black man in America, I’m allowed to have my own thoughts on who I choose to support, and who I choose not to support. I think that it’s important, whether you’re talking about the Congressional Black Caucus or the Florida State Legislative Black Caucus or the National Caucus of State Black Legislators — organizations I have been a part of in the past,” he stated. “My support of President Trump has been consistent. But at the same time, I’ve had the ability to advocate for issues, ideas, proposals, and funding that have helped the black community in my state.”
Further, he went on to correctly point out that the issue at hand was “whether the ideology of somebody who is conservative is welcomed in the Congressional Black Caucus. It’s really that simple.”
Donalds also told Keilar something Democrats and their supporters in the mainstream media don’t like to hear: “I think having a wider range of discussions from all sides of the political framework is important, not just for black America, but all America.”
Imagine that. Instead of being excluded from the conversation or mocked and ridiculed when they are allowed to be a part of it, minority conservatives would get the respect they’ve earned. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be challenged, but it would mean that liberals and their media allies would finally have to abide by the “COEXIST” standard they demand of others.
But as history has shown us all too often, holding them to their own standards is a bridge too far. This is all the more reason why America needs more people like Byron Donalds who refuse to allow their voices to be diminished simply because a biased anchor on one of the lowest-rated programs on a struggling cable news network thinks they should be.
Media analyst Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
