Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., defended tech billionaire Elon Musk at a town hall Monday night at which he was grilled about the Department of Government Efficiency's cost-cutting measures and the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate diversity initiatives and its approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
Donalds, a member of the House Oversight Committee, was pressed at one point about what the Republican-led panel was doing to ensure oversight of Musk and DOGE as the administration moves to dramatically reshape the federal government and slash spending.
“If you’re going to talk about what Oversight is doing, we actually have to let the DOGE committee, the DOGE department, actually finish its work,” Donalds said at the event in Estero, Florida.
He also defended the Trump administration's efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, arguing it was a "false premise" that the absence of such initiatives in boardrooms and classrooms meant that "somehow minority kids cannot get ahead. It is a lie."
"There’s no level playing field in life; it doesn’t exist," said Donalds, one of the few Black Republicans in Congress.
After a man in the audience shouted that Donalds ought to read a particular book, Donalds fired back, telling the man not to "educate me about my life, sir."
"I love how everybody is shouting at me, the Black guy with the microphone in his hand onstage," Donalds said. "Don’t marginalize my life and what I’ve done. Don’t do that."
Throughout the town hall, dozens of people left, many voicing frustration with answers from Donalds, who is running for governor of Florida in next year's election.
Toward the end of the event, Donalds clashed with an audience member over his response to a question about the Israel-Hamas war.
“We should stand behind Israel 100%,” Donalds said. “I stand by our ally, which is Israel.”
When the audience member stood and loudly protested his pro-Israel stance, Donalds said she was disrespecting “everybody in this room" with her conduct.
“You think you’re being heard, and let’s be clear, you’re not,” Donalds said. “We laid the rules out. You are being rude and disrespectful. You are not the only person who has a point of view in this room.”
Shouts of “Free Palestine!” from a small number of audience members could be heard as the woman left the venue, followed by police.
There were no arrests.
Donalds is one of a handful of Republicans who have held town halls after Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, advised GOP lawmakers in a closed-door meeting last month against holding the events amid harsh criticism from angry attendees at town halls earlier this year.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., held a town hall last week at which some audience members were arrested and stunned by police, while others were removed from the event.
