The Daily Signal - As Teen, Byron Donalds Was Mugged at Gunpoint. He’s Now in Congress.

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Freshman Rep. Byron Donalds was a businessman before he served in the Florida House of Representatives and now in Congress, where he arrived in January. Donalds grew up in a single-parent household and says his mom made sacrifices to make the American Dream possible for him. "Growing up in the inner city, a lot of things happen, unfortunately," Donalds said of his upbringing in Brooklyn, N.Y. "You get mugged. I was mugged when I was in middle school. I was held up at gunpoint at 16 years old. So now, being in politics and being a grown man, a lot of things just don't really faze me, because just from my experiences growing up in the inner city," he explained. Donalds joins "The Daily Signal Podcast” to share his story, both personal and political. We also cover these stories: Eight people died in three shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta area.  Members of N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle circulated a letter aimed at tarnishing the reputation of Lindsey Boylan, a former Cuomo aide who accused him of sexual harassment, according to a New York Times report.  New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, said that Cuomo would be convicted if an impeachment trial were held in the state Senate, according to a report on New York’s WCBS-TV. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, March 18th. I'm Jared Stedman. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. Congressman Byron Donald's of Florida is a freshman member of Congress who came from a single parent household. He joins the Daily Signal podcast to share his story, as well as weigh in on how his home state of Florida has led the way in opening up in the midst of COVID-19 compared to other states across the country. Don't forget. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news.

Eight people have died in three shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Police arrested a man identified as 21-year-old Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, as a suspect. Here's what Cherokee County Sheriff's Captain Jay Baker had to say about the suspect in the three shootings, per the recount. The suspect did take responsibility for the shootings. He said that early on once we began the interviews with him. He claims that these, and as the chief said, this is still early, but he does claim that it was not racially motivated. He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex fiction,

and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places. And it's a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate. Like I said, it's still early on, but those were comments that he made. Members of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's inner circle circulated a letter aimed at tarnishing the reputation of Lindsay Boylan, a former Cuomo aide who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, according to the New York Times report. The letter, according to the Times, accused Boylan of being politically motivated.

Weaponizing a claim of sexual harassment for personal political gain or to achieve notoriety cannot be tolerated, the letter read, false claims demean the veracity of credible claims. Jill Bessinger, who is Boylan's attorney, condemned the actions of Cuomo in his staff. Bassenger said to the Times, once again, a victim of sexual harassment who has the courage to tell her story,

is put in the position of not only having to relive the trauma of a toxic work environment, but defend herself against the malicious leaking of supposed personnel files, character assassinations, and a whisper campaign of retaliation. This page needs to be ripped out of the governor's harassment handbook. Cromwell has been under fire for both claims of sexual harassment and for a scandal involving

sending sick COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, getting thousands of people killed, then, according to reports, downplaying the number of deaths. President Joe Biden is asking illegal immigrants to not crumb across the southern border into the U.S. just yet. Here's what the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos via ABC News. A lot of the migrants coming in saying they're coming in because you promised to make things better. It seems to be getting worse by the day. Was it a mistake not to anticipate this surge? Well, first of all, there was a surge the last two years in 19 and 20. There was a surge as well. This one might be worse. No, well, it could be, but here's the deal. We're sending back people to,

first of all, the idea that Joe Biden said, said come because I heard the other day that they're coming because they know I'm a nice guy and I won't do what Trump. They're saying this. Yeah. Well, here's the deal. They're not. Do you have to say quite clearly don't come? Yes, I can say quite clearly don't come and what we're in the process of getting set up. Don't leave your town or city or community. New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, a Democrat, said according to a CBS2 report, the Governor Andrew Cuomo would be convicted if an impeachment trial was held in the state Senate. You know, I think a majority of my members have come out and suggested that the governor should resign,

so I haven't canvassed anyone, but I think the majority of my members have spoken, Stuart Cousin said, according to CBS2. New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, another Democrat, said that the charges of sexual harassment won't be the only thing brought up at the trial. The tie between Cuomo's downplaying of COVID nursing home deaths and his recent book contract will also be looked into, Kim said. I'm confident there's some personal profit motives in the contract, Kim said. For example, how much money will he receive if he makes the New York Times bestseller list?

How much money will he make if he sells 50,000 books? What are the benchmarks? Now stay tuned for my conversation with Congressman Byron Donald's. Conservative women. Conservative feminist. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are particular interest to conservative leaning or problematic women.

That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcasts. I'm joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Congressman Byron Donald's of Florida, Congressman Donald's. It's great to have you with us on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Well, you're a freshman member of Congress. And before we get to your run, we're going to talk about that. But can you tell us first a little bit about

your personal story, how you grew up in a single parent household, and just all the credit you give to your mom for all the sacrifices you make. Can you tell us a little bit about your own personal story? Yeah, I mean, look, I'm a poor kid from Brooklyn, New York. That's who I am, you know. And I guess even, you know, with all of this, I'm still that, that kid. kids so that person. We grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. We were just poor. And you knew you were poor, but, you know, for my mother, education was everything to her. You know, she took me out of public school when I was in the first grade because she didn't want them to put me on Ritalin. She knew that her son had more promise. So she was, I guess you could say she was a school choice mom

before school choice was cool because for her, she wanted to make sure that her son got the best education. So she pulled me out, put me in a small black private school that really just took the time to educate me. And then from there, even my teenage years, I played sports. I just did stuff like that. But for her, education was always paramount. That was the thing that was going to get me out of Brooklyn. It was going to get me out of the neighborhoods and move me on to just a better life, which is what she always wanted for me. It was pretty simple. I mean, but, you know, growing up in the inner city, you know, a lot of things happen, unfortunately. You know, you get a mugged. I was mugged when I was in middle school. I was held up at gunpoint at 16 years old.

So, you know, now being in politics and being a grown man, like a lot of things just don't really faze me, you know, because just some of my experiences growing up in inner city, you really understand, like, when somebody's really trying to get you versus people just running their mouths. But that's how I grew up. I was a, you know, poor kid in inner city. Once I graduated high school, I went to Florida A&M in Tallahassee, historically black college. And then I transferred to Florida State University and graduated from FSU in 2002. Met my wife in college, moved down to Naples. Never thought I was going to stay in Naples.

And now I'm the congressman from Naples. It's kind of crazy, actually. Wow, it comes full circle. Well, before we talk about your run for Congress, can you tell us about how you got involved in politics in the first place? Yeah, that's a great story because my family, we never cared about politics. We're apolitical, although we were all registered. for Democrats when I was a kid.

It's frankly like how most families are in our country. They don't really think about politics except when it's time to go vote for somebody. So actually what happened to me was I was in insurance at the time. I was 28, 29 years old. The financial collapse was happening back in 2008. And my firm asked me to do research on the financial collapse for our clients. And I turned on the House Financial Services Committee one day and I was pissed because I was like, who are these people?

they don't know what they're talking about. Like, I'm, you know, I'm 29 years old, and I knew more about what's happening in financial markets than the committee did. And I found that just, I was really upset because I'm like, you guys are supposed to have the solutions, you're our leaders, and I'm getting nothing. So it actually piqued my interest because I really was just like, who are these people? So I started watching cable news, which I never watched. And I hated cable news because it was just, everything was surface level,

everything was gotcha. It was vapid. It didn't make any sense. If somebody trying to start watching news for the first time and you start watching cable news, like, it's annoying and it's frustrating. You're just trying to understand. So a friend of mine told me

about some guy named Mark Levin on a podcast, and they were like, listen to this guy, and I'm like, all right, I'm just trying to learn politics. And I'm listening to him for the first couple times. I'm like, who is this crazy person? Like, he's just yelling all the time. But I said I was going to continue to listen.

And I did, and I'm glad I did. He was talking, I think, at the time about some guy named Frederick Bostiats. I went and found his book, and I read it, The Law. First book I ever read on politics, it was a great book. Because what it signaled for me was actually the original purpose of law and the actual purpose of law, not about politics, not about conservatives versus liberals or Republicans versus Democrats or, you know, or liberal ideology or none of that. It was about the purpose of law. And then from there, it really started to pique my awareness about political philosophy. So I read Locke, I read Montesquieu, started reading more about the history of government over world and world history.

And so kind of when I kind of was doing all of that research and information gathering, I realized I was actually a classical liberal or a modern conservative. And from there, once I realized what my true political philosophy was, then I changed party registration and it became a Republican and the rest is kind of history from there. Wow. Well, can you tell us about, so before you ran for Congress, you served in the Florida House of Representatives. What was that experience like and what were some of the highlights that you found yourself in during your time serving Florida in the House there? Being in the Florida legislature was actually really cool. Like I ran on education reform and just continuing the success of Florida's economy. And when I got there, you really started to understand the legislative process.

Started to really see how, you know, I know everybody remembers there from Schoolhouse Rock. you know, I'm a bill, you know, but I really got a chance to get knee deep into public policy from the side of not just looking at it and having my opinions on what's being proposed, but actually sitting down and going through the nuts and bolts of policy. And the number one attribute I always took in was restraint. You know, I think elected officials, there's one attribute I want to see out of all elected officials, is the understanding that just because you can doesn't mean you should, knowing that it is important that you maintain discipline

and the proper necessary restraint and respect for the people that you serve and what their true authority is. And I think it because you had elected now, you're the ultimate authority. And so everything I kind of did was always from that vein. I spent a lot of time talking with black Democrats because we have as like a shared history. I shared growing up, you know, if you will. And so we spent a lot of time together and really got a chance to engage in these political discussions away from the TV cameras,

like in a really in like a comfort area where you could really speak fully about all the things you believe. I realize that, you know, one of the things that we do need in politics is that there does have to be some basis of camaraderie and respect for each other as individuals. Because too often, if you get caught up in the policy

without understanding the person and the rationale that a person is coming to the table with and the actual beliefs a person is coming to the table with, that's how we get into this ultra tribalist environment I think we're in today well can you tell us about your run for congress what was that push that decided to get you to put your name on the ballot and why did you run which one which one are you talking about oh for congress yes oh i know i which one no i ran for actually i ran for congress in 2012 at that point i was like just like i had political philosophy and policy ideas coming out of my

years. I was on doing local radio. When Herman Kane was running for president, I was on the local Herman Kane campaign in Collier County. And when his campaign ended, the people on the team asked me to run for Congress in 2012. At that time, our Connie Mack was running against Bill Nelson statewide, and RC came open. So I ran. I had no idea what I was doing. Like, I was a complete novice, had no idea what campaigns even were. But, you know, the people around me, we were just all business people. And we kind of turned it into a guerrilla marketing campaign. And it's like, Well, you're just trying to get attention. You're trying to get people to pick your products, so it has to be guerrilla marketing.

It was a great experience. People thought at the time they were like, there's no way he'll be a congressman. Who is this guy? He's just coming off the street as a regular person. But I learned so much during that election. It really got a real basis support in my community, which actually propelled me into the state house and it propelled me into this congressional run. So when I ran the second time around, I actually swore off of D.C.

I was going to stay in the state legislature, maybe go to the state Senate, but I wanted nothing to do with Washington. I looked at the place as dysfunctional where everybody's just talking and nobody's actually doing. Why would I do that when I can just finish politics at the state level, go back, make money, and be happy. But when our seat came open again, I had people call me and they were like, you know, we would really want you to run. Our area is very conservative area, Southwest Florida, Naples, Fort Myers. and it always has wanted a strong conservative to represent the area. So when I started looking at the field and the more I thought about it,

I just said, you know what, let's go ahead and do it. I had accomplished all the things I ran on for this interstate house. So I was like, let's do it. Let's take our shot. Well, what are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities you see in Congress, given that there's a Democrat House Senate and White House, where do you see any room to work, despite that the other party is controlling everything right now? it's going to be very difficult because, you know, I think right now the Democrats are super, like,

now they're even more, what's the word I'm looking for, more hyped up because of what happened on January 6th. And I think it's going to make it difficult for us to be able to do bipartisan things. I think some of that is starting to thaw a little bit, but I know it's going to be difficult. I think that right now Nancy Pelosi is a stranglehold on the House, and so she's not, going to allow anything to get through that either A, she just has no care about, that's not going to affect her political ideas and outlooks, you know, or B, definitely not something that's conservative. So we have a job to do, and that's to be the loyal opposition, if you will, to really, and not just be the loyal opposition and just vote no, but I think it's to actually promote

conservative ideals, not just to what they're doing, but to all the things that need to be done, not just in Washington, but really for the country. And so I want to be focused on that about promoting policy, promoting a vision for what the country is supposed to look like, how it's actually supposed to run. And then, you know, when we go through midterm elections in two years, hopefully the voters see it our way. Well, when it comes to coronavirus, your state has really led in keeping it open, opening it back up. How have you guys done this? Because we actually follow the science and we don't get caught up in political science. We made a decision in our state and this is really at the, to the leadership of Governor DeSantis. I mean, we locked down like every state

did for about a month or so. And then we looked at it and just realized that, you know what, it is important that we begin to reopen our economy. Like, we're not going to be able to survive long term as a state if people don't have the ability to go to work while also protecting their health for kids to go to school while also making sure we put in the necessary provisions. So we are the model for the country. It was the best decision to governor made. I'm glad he's our governor because he's been fantastic. And during this whole thing, saying, look, nobody's perfect. There's been missteps by every elected official, every one of us, because we're dealing with a novel virus nobody knew anything about a year ago. Nothing. So for us to be

where we are as a state is, quite frankly, it's the miracle of conservatism being displayed for the country and the world to see right now. We mentioned schools opening and your schools in Florida are open. Can you talk a little bit of it more about how you've done this and what you would encourage other States to do since you guys have been successful? We follow the science, you know, social distancing, washing your hands. In schools, we do require that kids wear masks in schools in Florida. We do that. But then we let people just, after the basic tenants that we all know are smart things to do, you know, the science, then we let people just use common sense and operate. First of all, like, nobody walks around saying, I want to get COVID today. I want to be in the hospital. That's ridiculous.

Because people innately, no matter whether it's COVID or anything else, everybody always seeks their own interests. That is a fundamental, fundamental idea and reality of the world we live in. Everybody seeks their own interests. Once you know that, you can actually trust people to do the right thing in mass. As long as you put the proper guardrails in. Not these intricate Rube Goldberg maze things where, well, we'll let you go to the school one day a week. And that's going to, that's nonsense. What we did here was follow the science.

We don't need a study to do it. If the CDC wants to really understand how to open up schools, they should come to Florida. We've been doing it since August. Not all of our kids have returned because some parents aren't comfortable with their children returning. And so for those parents, we've provided virtual learning and distance learning. But for the parents who are like, you know what, my kid can go back. They've gone back. And what we've actually seen is transmission rates have actually been quite low in schools.

Children, now we know, do not take on the worst effects of course. COVID-19. The vast, vast, vast minority of children take on the worst effects of COVID-19. And so every family has to make those decisions. That's what we've done in Florida. It's actually quite simple. Nothing super crazy. We just followed the science and use common sense. Well, Congressman Donald's, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast. It's been great having you with us. Listen, it was a pleasure. I love the Daily Signal. I'm definitely coming back. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio.

Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com. Thank you.