Byron Donalds gets into heated exchange with leftists journalist over election certification
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), one of former President Donald Trump's top allies in Congress, got into a heated exchange over the weekend with Cnn's Dana Bash.
The Washington Examiner reports that the exchange, which took place on CNN's State of the Union, had to do with certifying the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Per the outlet:
Rep. Byron Donalds’s (R-FL) discussion about certifying the 2024 election results became heated when providing an answer on the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. The act, which President Joe Biden signed into law as part of a $1.7 trillion federal spending bill in 2022, updated the Electoral Count Act to revise the process of casting and counting electoral votes in presidential elections.
Bash tried to get Donalds to say whether he supports this act, by the congressman, as we will see, was having none of it.
"Look . . ."
In Donalds's view, whether or not a particular congress member will commit, in advance, to certifying the results of the presidential election is besides the point.
He told Bash:
Look, I think when you’re talking about the election this November, the thing that people want is that local jurisdictions follow the law passed by the states. As long as everybody does that, there‘s not going to be any problem certifying this election this November.
Donalds did not stop there. He went on to press Bash on the issues.
He said:
But what really matters about this election are the issues facing the American people, not the Electoral College Count Act, because what we need is a president who‘s going to secure our border, actually make our foreign policies be strong again and make sense. That’s what matters.
Suffice it to say that Bash was not too pleased with this.
Background
There has been much controversy, in recent weeks, about election certification, with Democratic members of Congress suggesting that they might not be willing to certify a Trump victory.
Axios reported:
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the House Oversight Committee ranking member and former Jan. 6 committee member who objected to Trump electors in 2017, told Axios in an interview that if Trump "won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it." However, Raskin said he "definitely" doesn't assume that Trump would use free, fair and honest means to secure a victory.
This comes after Democrats, for years, have criticized Republicans for refusing to commit to certifying the results of a presidential election.
Accordingly, the Democrats are now facing accusations of hypocrisy.
Given all of this background talk, the certification process will certainly be something to keep an eye on following the upcoming election.