Florida protester screams at Rep. Byron Donalds during tense town hall
A protester was captured on video yelling at Rep. Byron Donalds and being escorted away by security during a town hall hosted by the Florida Republican.
Tensions escalated inside the auditorium at Estero High School Monday night after a woman began shouting at Donalds – a staunch ally of President Donald Trump who is running to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – over the war in Gaza.
“The Palestinians have voted for Hamas and they have not done anything to remove Hamas. So you want to have a shouting match with me? Let’s have a shouting match on the facts,” Donalds said. “The truth is, is that Hamas held elections one time. One time. And they never held elections again. Because they would prefer to keep the Palestinian people under their boots.”
“So if you’re going to ask who has blood on your hands, it is Hamas and it is the people that empower them…. That’s the truth. If you want to continue to have a shouting match with me at least come with the facts. Next question,” Donald told her, drawing applause from other members of the crowd.
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However, the woman continued yelling at Donalds.
“What you’re doing is yelling now and you’re being disrespectful. You, ma’am, you are being disrespectful. And I will respect you. And I will honor the fact that you are here trying to get answers,” Donald said. “But if you’re gonna hold this thing up and be disrespectful, then it’s time for you to be removed. You can leave.”
The protester was then seen being escorted away by law enforcement. As she was being led out of the auditorium, she shouted, “Free, free Palestine!”
Donalds also encountered a hostile reaction from his audience while responding to a question about oversight being imposed on Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
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“First and foremost, when it comes to what Elon Musk is doing, he’s everything that he does right now is in the auspices of being a special employee under the presidency of Donald Trump. So how this works is the president’s allowed to have special employees. Every president basically had these special employees. They’re tasked with specific duties, specific responsibilities. Some of them have been tasked with going overseas, trying to negotiate climate policy. That was John Kerry when he was the climate czar under President Biden,” Donalds told the crowd. “And this instance, Elon Musk is essentially the head of the DOGE that Donald Trump has set up in his administration.”
The crowd eventually started groaning and grew restless as Donalds spoke.
“Are you going to allow me to answer the question? OK. So like I said, what he, what they doing is under the directions of the president of the United States. 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 continued. “What they are examining right now is inefficiency in a federal system.”
“You can boo if you want to, but those are the facts. Because if you go back in time, back to 2009,” he added. “Then-President Obama famously said that he wanted to examine the efficiencies or lack thereof in the federal government. Elon Musk is doing the exact same thing.”
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