Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) refused to take the bait from NBC host Kristen Welker when she asked him about a conversation she had with President Trump on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
Welker had an exchange with Trump regarding if illegal aliens are entitled to due process just because they are physically in the U.S. Trump had said he was not sure.
So, Welker asked Donalds to respond to the same question. Donalds then flipped it back on the host and responded by exposing the question’s framing, which was to try to get him to imply that Trump’s answer was wrong.
“The Constitution says any person, not citizen and therein lies the debate and the root of my question. I mean, does ‘any person’ just apply to citizens in your mind or does it apply to citizens and non-citizens? Secretary of State Marco Rubio says it applies to citizens and non-citizens,” Welker said.
Donalds responded with a criticism of former President Biden, saying that “[F]irst and foremost, when the framers wrote our Constitution, they never envisioned that there would be an executive that would allow millions of people to come into the country illegally. Number two, more importantly, you have a situation right now — is it okay for any administration to not follow the law, abuse border security laws, let millions of people in, and then hide behind a court system to say, ‘Well, now they’re here, so now we have to go through a lengthy process’?”
“Let’s examine this right now. Right now, what we know is that when people came into the country illegally, almost 90 percent of them would not even go to the hearings,” Donalds continued, rhetorically asking how as a country we should deal with that fact.
WATCH:
🚨NEW: Byron Donalds TURNS TABLES on Kristen Welker after she presses him on "due process" for illegal immigrants🚨
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) May 5, 2025
DONALDS: "When the framers wrote our Constitution, they never envisioned that there would be an executive that would allow millions of people to come into the… pic.twitter.com/OIUn4VqKto