Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., spoke out on Newsmax's "Eric Bolling The Balance," cautioning the Democratic Party about the potential repercussions of efforts to exclude former President Donald Trump from state ballots.
Donalds said, "They only care about their agenda and winning elections by any means necessary. That is the rot in our country, and we got to get rid of it."
The congressman emphasized the likelihood of electoral losses. He criticized attempts to disqualify Trump: "But when you do stupid stuff like this, what you're really doing is you're turning off independent voters and even some of those soft Democrats, those conservative Democrats."
He pointed out that these voters may be put off by the notion that the Democratic Party is willing to disenfranchise a segment of the country rather than engage in the political process.
"Yes, they exist in the country. They're voters ... they're conservative-leaning, and they're also Democrat registered voters," Donalds explained. "You start turning people off because what you're saying is that you would rather just disenfranchise a segment of the country; you would rather just remove political opposition, as opposed to actually having the political process take its natural course."
Donalds said the current approach would backfire, claiming it has already done so. He predicted the situation would only worsen. He used this as evidence of what he perceives as radicalism within the Democratic Party.
"But this is really proof of the radicalism that is in the Democratic Party. I mean, we're not talking about political disagreements or, you know, somebody who's very liberal or somebody who's very conservative. These are radicals — people who don't care about the rule of law, they don't care about our institutions."
"I think this is going to backfire. It's already backfired, and it's only going to get worse," he said.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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