What Was Byron Donalds Thinking With That Unhinged Defense of Trump?

Representative Byron Donalds thinks that Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity is up for discussion and Donald Trump’s attacks on her race make total sense.

In an interview on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Donalds called criticism of Trump for questioning Harris’s racial identity “a phony controversy.”

“I don’t really care, most people don’t, but if we’re going to be accurate, when Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was [the Associated Press] that said she was the first Indian American United States senator. It was actually played up a lot,” Donalds said.

Stephanopoulos challenged the congressman.

“And you just repeated the slur again. If it doesn’t matter, why do you all keep questioning her identity? She’s always identified as a Black woman. She is biracial. She has a Jamaican father and Indian mother. She’s always identified as both. Why are you questioning that?” Stephanopoulos replied.

“There are a lot of people who are trying to figure this out, but again, that’s a side issue, not the main issue,” Donalds said, claiming the issue was being widely discussed on social media. Stephanopoulos interrupted and said over Daniels, “You just did it again. Why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?”

Donalds kept coming back to the issue, but Stephanopoulos kept calling him out on it.

“Every single time you repeat the slur,” Stephanopoulos said . “That’s exactly my point.”

Trump and his Republican allies continue to defend questioning Harris’s Black and Indian identities despite the fact that it makes them look bad and isn’t likely to win them any popular support. Even other Republicans think the attacks hurt Trump’s standing. Donalds himself has spearheaded events meant to draw Black support to the Trump campaign, only for them to fail badly. If he keeps defending Trump in this way, not only will Trump’s prospects be hurt, but his will be too.