Watch: Furious MSNBC host confronts Trump ally Byron Donalds over president elect's plans
A visibly fuming José Díaz-Balart hammered Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) on Wednesday morning after Donald Trump's presidential win, peppering the MAGA lawmaker with questions about what the president-elect has in store with America's immigrants.
During the tense interview, Donalds bluntly stated that the convicted felon Trump intends to follow the law and will quickly move to expel immigrants deemed to be criminals while making no allowances for immigrants who have been in the country for years.
"So last night we hear he [Trump] will heal the country. How is he going to do that, especially when he says something like that and applies it to people who maybe don't support him, who didn't vote for him?" the MSNBC host began.
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"First and foremost, the success of the American people is how you unite the American people, unite our country," the Florida Republican replied. "That's what Donald Trump is focused on. That's why his tax policy, his border security policies, those are the number one and number two reason why the American people came to support him."
Díaz-Balart, pressed, "I want to refer to what you're talking about, forgotten people. As you know, there are probably 22 million people living in our country in mixed immigration status households. There are 10 or 11 million people who have been here, many for decades, with U.S.-born children that have participated and continued to participate in our economy. There are young men and women, recipients of DACA that know of no other country but this one. And there is, among those people and many others, a palpable sense of fear for what the future may hold for them. What is your message to those people?"
"My message is clear," the stone-faced Donalds replied. "Right now under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, there's been about half a million people in our country let in who are convicted of crimes. 14,000 convicted of murder. Those people are going to go home immediately."
"After that, then, yes, you have about another 6 to 8, maybe 10 million, maybe more, that have come in through these wide open asylum procedures under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They've overwhelmed our cities. If you want to talk about the people that have been here much longer than that, we're going to have to get to that as well," he continued.
"My question, once again, what do you say to those that aren't the ones that have crossed the border in the last couple of years, but the ones that have been here and that who, in many ways, have through their actions in our country been vetted, and what do you say to the hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador that have been under TPS, what do you say to the thousands of people that have come from Haiti and continue to contribute in our country? What do you say to those people who look at the rhetoric that's been used recently that have a palpable sense of fear?" the host asked.
"What I will tell them is, Donald Trump is going to follow the law," replied Donalds, who has a criminal history of his own. "And so if you're going to talk about rhetoric which happens all over the place in politics, not just from Donald Trump, but from the political left as well, we have to be honest with people. We are going to follow the law."
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