Donalds Once Again Extends Invitation To “Sit Down” With Bush, Who Doubles Down On “White Supremacy” Accusations

Amid the struggle to elect a Speaker of the House, Republican Representative Byron Donalds was nominated and has been garnering increased support. As a black man, it would be historic if he were to be elected Speaker of the House. But to fellow black American and Democrat representative Cori Bush, Donalds is nothing more than a “prop” who is “upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.” Donalds responded with beautifully, offering to sit down with Bush to discuss the policies she claims are upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.

But Bush doubled down in an article with HuffPost, saying,

“My issue is not with Byron Donalds himself. My issue is not with him being Black. My issue is not with him being Republican. My issue is because he was not someone that they have been promoting for the last two years.

It seems as if they’re using him as a prop, as a tool, not because they think that he’s great, that he’s done all of these things to lead them. I don’t like that they’re using him that way. I don’t want them to use him that way. And I want him to understand: They’re only using you… don’t let them do that to you. Make them treat you with dignity and respect.

To hear Chip Roy stand up and say this is not about color … it absolutely 100% is because if you were nominating him on his worth and merit, I think none of us would have been surprised because we would have seen him do leadership things.”

So, because he hasn’t yet done “leadership things” sufficient to impress Cori Bush, he’s somehow not allowed to start doing leadership things without being called a “prop?” She clearly thinks very little of him if she thinks the only possible reason for his nomination is the color of this skin.

Byron Donalds once again responded to her criticism with dignity, inviting her again to “sit down and debate our policies one on one.” He even asked for her support as a black man in politics, insisting that “as a Black man to a Black woman, I’d never do that to you.” But Bush decided to triple down on her racism and accusations that he “promotes white supremacist chaos.” She called his actions “shameful” and claimed that the nomination for Speaker of the House “helps you politically at the expense of our community.”

Clearly, Byron Donalds doesn’t agree that it is at the expense of black Americans. He believes that conservative values and policies will ultimately improve black American lives and communities, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten into politics to encourage that kind of change. And it once again shows Cori Bush’s racism that she thinks he isn’t intelligent enough to understand the effect of his values and policy preferences.