‘Are You Out of Your Mind?!’ CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and GOP Rep. Byron Donalds Battle in Heated Clash Over Trump NYC Rally

CNBC’s Squawk Box host Andrew Sorkin clashed with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) for lambasting the media headlines condemning former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as “racist” while attempting to disown jokes made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe from the stage.

During the rally multiple speakers took to the stage, including Hinchcliffe, who joked Puerto Rico was a “floating pile of garbage” and made other stereotypical jibes about Black people and Israel. The Trump campaign later issued a statement to distance the nominee’s views from the comedian’s opening act.

When Trump finally took to the stage he outlined his proposed deportation policy and described Election Day as a “liberation day” from immigrant “occupation,” and repeated his charge that Democrats were the “enemy from within.”

Appearing on Squawk Box on Monday, Donalds, who was in attendance for the duration of the rally, said the rally was “great” and, as the hosts ran through newspaper headlines that branded the event “racist,” he gave chase to accuse the media of “trying to fearmonger everything” and not talking about the “facts” or “substance.”

I was there the entire time. So to the New York Daily News , is it a racist rally if you have a black man from Florida who’s originally from New York speaking at the rally? I don’t think so. This is the problem with most media today. They’re too busy trying to fearmonger everything, instead of actually talking about the facts and the substance.

It was a great rally last night. Donald Trump obviously spoke. Did he say something that was off color? No, he did not. I spoke. Did I say something off color? No, I did not. Eric Trump , Lara Trump , Donald Trump Jr. , Elon Musk , Howard Lutnick … Did they say anything that was off color? No, they did not.

Co-host Becky Quick then referenced Hinchcliffe, noting that the Trump campaign had “distanced itself” from his jokes. Donalds then shared his shock at the comedian’s set.

I didn’t agree with what the comedian said. None of us did. When it came out, we were all like… I said the campaign distanced himself. Yeah, of course. We were all like, wait, what? How did he get up? No, no, no, no. Nobody agreed with that. Nobody. Period. Full stop. People say… But he’s also a comedian. I don’t… We didn’t control what he said.

Sorkin, however, gave chase, rereading one headline that branded the rally “crude and racist.” He pushed back on Donalds for his claim that the framing was unwarranted.

“That did happen,” Sorkin insisted. “You may not have been the one making those jokes, but that did happen.”

The congressman replied: “And Becky just said it. The campaign has distanced themselves from it. They do not agree. I do not agree. Unfortunately, it was said. It was said, but nobody agrees with that.”

The host continued to apply pressure: “But I have a question for you. And this is what I think. To the extent that there are folks who, by the way, may agree with the policies of Trump, but don’t want to vote for Trump. And you know some of those people. The reason that they don’t want to vote for Trump is because they see, either in his character or the people who seem to support him, seem to be engaged in that or willing to engage in that, right? Because what you don’t see, you don’t go to other rallies for Harris or see in a Harris rally that kind of vitriol.”

“You don’t?” Donalds shot back.

“I don’t think you do,” Sorkin said.

Agitated, Donalds accused Harris of spending “half her time talking about her rival as Hitler.”

He added: “Every Democrat official at these rallies refers to him as Adolf Hitler. You got Hillary Clinton running around there hawking her book that nobody wants to buy, frankly, and she’s talking about how this is akin to 1939. Are you out of your mind? You want to talk about rhetoric?”

Donalds continued to attack the Biden administration’s economic policies, claiming that inflation and “terrible” border policies under President Joe Biden have impacted Puerto Ricans as much as everyone else: “That’s a terrible joke on the American people. We should be focused on that.”

Sorkin returned to his point: “I’m not disagreeing with you on that front. I’m just saying to the extent that you can speak to those people who are out there watching, who say, you know what, I agree with the Trump policies, but I just can’t abide by reading headlines like that.”

Donalds interrupted: “I don’t want to cut you off, but in America today, we have to decide, are we going to be trapped by the headlines of a media who, quite frankly, is in the tank one way or the other? Or are we going to look at the actual policies that matter in your life?”

“Take the headlines out,” Sorkin argued. “You can look at the videos themselves.”

Quick joined in with Sorkin: “Congressman, I can appreciate all of that, but it was the campaign that put this comedian on the stage instead of talking about the facts that you’re talking about. And you can look in social media to find all of these criticisms of it, too.”

Donalds pleaded to the hosts that Harris was “not answering the issues facing the American people” and that was pointing to “the comedian” to distract from that: “You all know this.”

Sorkin pressed again: “That’s something that people can make up their own mind about. But I think there are people who watch the videos of either that comedian, by the way, the fellow who’s on the radio, some of the other comments, and people just watch it. It’s not the media telling them to watch it. You watch it, and you say to yourself, this is not a great situation.”

Watch above on CNBC.