North Carolina representative Dan Bishop slammed Missouri representative Cori Bush's criticism of Florida representative Byron Donalds as "racist."
Donalds was nominated to challenge Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy during Monday's speaker vote. The Florida representative went on to secure 20 votes from Republicans opposing McCarthy.
"Last night, I sat within feet of Mr. Donalds as the tweet of another member-elect appeared on the screen. That member-elect wrote, and sent out to America, that Byron Donalds is 'a prop,'" Bishop said. "I’ve spent a good bit of time with Mr. Donalds, especially lately. He ain’t no prop."
"And if he were a prop, he wouldn’t be sitting where he’s sitting. This is the tired, old, grotesquely racist rhetoric that we’ve seen far too long!"
"FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop," Bush tweeted Wednesday. "Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy. His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic."
"FWIW, nobody asked [Cori Bush] her opinion on the matter. Before you judge my agenda, let's have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don't be a crab in a barrel!" Donalds said in response to the Missouri representative's tweet.
"My issue is not with Byron Donalds himself. My issue is not with him being Black. My issue is not with him being Republican. My issue is because he was not someone that they have been promoting for the last two years,” Bush said in a statement to HuffPost.
"To hear Chip Roy stand up and say this is not about color ... it absolutely 100% is because if you were nominating him on his worth and merit, I think none of us would have been surprised because we would have seen him do leadership things," Bush continued. "I’m glad they took offense because it shows their lack of knowledge. It shows how ignorant they are. I need them to read up and understand what white supremacy is, what it looks like, and what the patriarchal system looks like."
"[Cori Bush], if you see a Black man rise, let the man rise even if you disagree with them," Donalds followed up in a Thursday post. "I’d be happy to sit down and debate our policies one on one whenever you’d like. As a Black man to a Black woman, I’d never do that to you. It’s a shame you did it to me."
McCarthy has lost 11 ballots for speaker as of Thursday evening. A 12th vote is presumably scheduled for Friday, though conflicting reports suggest McCarthy may have struck a deal with opposing Republicans.
