Stephanopoulos and GOP Rep. Byron Donalds THROW DOWN in Wild Clash Over Trump Saying Kamala Harris ‘Became a Black Person’

ABC News host George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) got into a fiery, heated discussion about the topic of questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity on Sunday morning.

Neither side would back down as the Florida Republican joined ABC’s This Week to talk about the 2024 election.

Right out of the gate, Stephanopoulos pointed out former President Donald Trump questioned Harris’s racial identity last week during an interview with Black journalists in Chicago. The comments have dominated news coverage throughout the last several days.

“Why is former President Trump questioning the vice president’s racial identity?” the host probed.

Donalds replied that he did not care about the issue but added, “If we’re going to be accurate, when Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was [Associated Press] that said she was the first Indian American United States senator. It was actually played up a lot when she came into the Senate. Now she’s running nationally. Obviously, the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about – about her father’s heritage and her Black identity.”

Donalds tried to pivot the conversation in a different direction, which resulted in a slugfest on the topic. The transcript of the interview reads as follows:

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you – 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 an Indian mother. She’s always identified as both. Why are you questioning that?

DONALDS: Well, George, first of all, this is something that’s actually a conversation throughout social media right now. There were a lot of people who were trying to figure this out. But again, that’s a side issue, not the main issue. The main issue that’s –.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Sir, one second. So, you just did it – you just did it again.

DONALDS: George

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why… why do you – why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?

DONALDS: You want to talk or do you want me to talk?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want you to answer my question.

DONALDS: Okay, you don’t – yelling at – George, George, now that you’re done yelling at me, let me answer. He talked about it on the stage yesterday in Atlanta for, what, two minutes? He spent more than 35, 40 minutes going after her record, talking about how radical of a senator that she was. She was the most liberal senator in the United States – in the United States Senate. That is a fact. He talked about the job that she did as vice president of the United States. A job, I will add, which has been a failure for the American people. I know you guys like to glom on to this, that he talks about in jest or in a serious manner for about a minute or so. What you do not cover is the litany of failures of Kamala Harris. That’s what you’re not covering, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, question – so questioning somebody’s racial identity for a couple of minutes is okay?

DONALDS: George, I’m going to tell you again, he brought it up. [the Associated Press] is the one that wrote the headline when she first came into the United States Senate. Didn’t talk about her being Black. Talked about her being the first Indian American senator. AP brought that up. I mean, George, we could have this conversation for the entire segment, but none of this matters to the American people. What matters to the American people is, are we going to have the same policies of the Biden-Harris administration that has been destructive of the American people? Or are we going to have the policies of the Trump administration which put America first, had low inflation, prosperous Americans no matter your race, no matter your color, no matter your creed, and a foreign policy that kept America safe? Those are the facts that truly matter because this issue is going to come and go, the lives of the American people is what’s going to remain and that’s what matters more than anything else.

STEPHANOPOULOS: If it doesn’t matter, I don’t understand why you keep on repeating it, why the president keeps on repeating it, why those introducing the president yesterday keep on repeating it.

DONALDS: George, actually, I’m not the one who keeps repeating it. George, you’re the one that’s bringing it up now. That’s – I don’t I understand why…”

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve done – sir, you’ve done it – you’ve done it three times, every single answer you gave me. Now, let me finish, sir. Every single answer you gave, you repeated the slur.

DONALDS: You asked me, George. That’s why I’m pushing back on you now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Right.

DONALDS: George, you asked me the question three times, I responded but…”

STEPHANOPOULOS: And every single time you repeat the slur, that is my – exactly my point. You simply can’t say that it’s wrong.

DONALDS: George, so then what you’re saying – so then what you – and I want to get off this topic because it’s not the only thing that’s going on. But, George, now you’re saying that AP is the one that slurred Kamala Harris? Because those are the facts. You can go to the Internet and look at the clips, George, if you want to or we can talk about this now. I prefer to talk about the future of our country because the American people are struggling. The American people do need serious policy decisions to be made and they need serious leadership on the world stage. Kamala Harris has not proven that she can do that. Donald J. Trump has proven that he can do that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: AP did not say that Kamala Harris is not Black. She is biracial. She is Indian. She is Black. You continue to repeat the fact that you continue to repeat the slur. I don’t understand why you and the president do it. But it’s clear you’re not going to say that it’s wrong. And you’ve now established that for our audience.

A heated Stephanopoulos suggested the two should shift gears, which they soon did. But incredibly, the interview grew even more contentious. We’ll be covering the second part of this wild clash shortly.

Watch above via ABC.