After winning a Congressional seating 2020, Florida's Byron Donalds has rapidly risen up the ranks in the Republican Party and now finds himself at the center of vice presidential speculation. In this episode, we sit down with the Florida congressman in our Nashville studio to discuss the Trump veep stakes and why he thinks Trump's message appeals to all Americans, including minority voters. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Sunday, June ninth, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. Joining us here in our studio in Nashville is Florida congressman Byron Donald. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. Of course. Look, the latest report out of the AP is that you're one of the magnificent seven or eight being considered for VP. Would you accept that role if Trump asked you to step up and play it?

I would. I would accept. We're at a really interesting point in the country. I think that politics in general is shifting. People are shifting underneath the political parties. You could see that where the largest growing party is independents or non-affiliated. Demographic groups, racial groups, everybody Everybody's shifting in their political thought. I think we're at this point in the country where common sense is the true desire, not political ideology. I think it's a good thing for America. I think secondarily, being a member of the House and having been involved in the legislative process, I think what is an asset to the president is somebody who can make sure the wheels of Congress is moving to get the agenda done and to get the agenda across us. The third part is, I think in this environment, especially, you got to be able to go campaign and help him get across the line. It'd be a great honor, but it's his decision. He'll decide what he wants to do, and whatever his decision is, I'm going support that. I just want to win. I'm a real simple dude. I just want to win, be successful. That's it.

You've risen up the ranks, really rapidly gained national attention in, what is it, four years, year four?

This is year four in Congress, yeah.

What have you learned What do you feel like are the lessons that you've learned so far that would help you on the national stage?

Lesson number one is when you know you're right about something, you cannot give any quarter to the media or to the left. You have to stand very firm, and there's a point where you're standing alone. When you stand firm on what's right, then people see that, and then they will rally around you. But it's a momentary hesitation. They're going to watch to see what you do first, and then that's going to set the tempo for everything else. I think, secondarily, in DC, in particular, it's not about the actual bill that gets to the floor. It's how you scaled the battleground and seated the battleground for the bill that gets to the floor. Everything that you see happen in the news cycle really started two and three months ago, four months ago, six months ago in its infancy. It's how you prepare for that political battle or that legislative battle is everything. The votes is really just the culmination and the outcome of all of the work that was done before. Those are the two big ones that I've learned. I think the third, and I think in part, I'm helping Republicans, not President Trump. He's fine.

He doesn't need me. But I think helping Republicans understand is that you can go on CNN, you can go on MSNBC, you can do tough interviews. It's important, actually, to go and do those tough interviews because there are viewers who watch those channels. They're Americans. I totally believe they love the country, but they just have never heard a conservative view. I've never heard the Republican view on an issue. And going into those areas is really important for the country going forward.

Yeah, bursting bubbles in a sense, right? Actually, about that, every four years, we hear talk of minorities potentially voting for Republicans. Often it doesn't It happened. We've seen some major shifts with Hispanic voters, but Black voters have continued to be a firewall for Democrats. Do you see that changing recently?

Yeah, I do. I do. I think it's because a couple of things. First of all, Joe Biden, I call him the disaster of disaster. Everything's gone wrong in his presidency. People know that. They inherently know it. They instinctively know it. Are they quick to assign blame? That's the political question. I think that in this environment, if we do our jobs, they're going to correctly see that it is the Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC policy agenda that has failed America, is failing families all through our country, and it's failing us overseas on a global scale. And so I think those voters now are taking a look at their economic prospects. Generational wealth is a big issue for minority people in our country anyway, because they want to be able to have something. They want to be able to build a networth for their family, build a family business with their kids. And you cannot do that with the Biden agenda. It just does not work. I think that you are going to see that. And immigration, I think, has been the touch tone that has had those thought processes change because every city is overwhelmed with illegal immigrants, and it is siphoning off some of the programs and stuff that was actually just going to American citizens, and that's being redirected.

And people are looking at that saying, Wait a minute, that's not fair. They're not even supposed to be here. That's all because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the policies that they put into place. I do think you're going to see that shifting, I think, be accentuated in 2024.

A notable insight to say that there's a convergence of the immigration issue and the economic economic issue in terms of priorities for voters in a way that we've maybe never seen this starkly this year, impacting people on every level, including inner city, including rural. Do you think in the end, the economics are going to decide this election, or will it be a mishmash of some of the cultural issues?

I think overall, the old adage, it's the economy, stupid. I think that part is going to be the main driver. Obviously, the Democrats would love this to be a campaign about abortion or a campaign about race, but that's just not the number one or number two issue. Even if you look at some polling, it's not the economy that's the number one issue. It's immigration, which I think obviously it bodes well for President Trump and bodes well for Republicans. I think that as long as we keep that the focus of what's happening in 2024, I think that's really going to do well for Republicans up and down the ballot.

How do you feel about Trump's messaging so far on the issues that matter most to voters? Do you think he's hitting adequately those priorities?

Yeah, he is. I think of all his, I guess what, this is seven, eight, nine years in now. I think Ben Shapiro calls it This is season eight of Trump or however he refers to it. I think that the message and the message discipline has been the best. He's focused on all Americans. He's talking about not just blasting Joe Biden for for how terrible he is, but also talking about what he did when he was president and what he'll do again being the 47th president. I think that's important because voters remember the Trump presidency and now are living the Biden presidency. In some respects, COVID gave a mental reset of what America looked like with Donald Trump and what America looks like with Joe Biden. You had a real dichotomy that you can measure and look at very clearly. There's a clear line of difference. And so he has spoke directly to I think that has been the most effective messaging. I think what he's done is then layering the law fair stuff on top of that. But the law fair is not the message, it's the icing. The cake has been his economic policies, his handling of foreign issues, his domestic policies, and the deep contrast with Joe Biden and the Democrats.

I believe that message has been very effective. It's going to continue to be effective. It's going to bode incredibly well for him.

Speaking of law fair, you went to Manhattan to show solidarity with Donald Trump on this issue. How do you think American voters are going to respond to this series of lawsuits? That conviction, first ever for a former president in a leading presidential candidate. How are the American people going to respond to that?

I think they were already responding. I mean, you don't raise $70 million in low-dollar contributions in two days. I believe Laura Trump was saying 30% of that are new donors, people who have never donated. You don't do that unless you just have a revolting taste in their mouth by the American people. People knowing stuff is not fair. People knowing stuff is not right. What happened in Lower Manhattan was a violation of Donald Trump's constitutional rights, period, point blank. When people realize that they are just so fixated on getting their political rival, while still in Manhattan and in New York, there are crimes that are not being prosecuted by Alvin Bragg or being taken from felonies down to misdemeanors by Alvin Bragg. But then you want to take some misdemeanor with a statute of limitations as run, tie that in with some federal crime that you can't identify that the FEC, which is the governing jurisdictional body, already said there is nothing here, and you want to make that a felony? People know that stinks. They don't like it. This is past politics. I think whether you're a Democrat, an independent, a Republican, People have their opinions of Donald Trump.

They have their opinions of Joe Biden, but they don't want to see Sham, Kangoo Court elections in the United States, especially people who have immigrated to the United States over the past 50 years because they've seen this stuff happen in other countries. They don't want it here. I think that it's completely backfired on them. Then we go from there. But I think standing with Donald Trump on this is the complete right decision. He is being victimized because he is Donald Trump and he's running for President. That's disgusting, and I think the American people see that.

Now, to turn to President Biden, there have been some pretty damning reports lately about his mental fitness. We had the Wall Street Journal cite over 40 officials from Capitol Hill who had major concerns about his mental capacity and how it's diminished. Have you heard similar rumblings, and do you see this impacting the campaign?

Oh, I've heard the rumblings, no doubt about it. In conversations with Speaker McCarthy, Speaker Johnson, heard about the stories about how he doesn't do anything without a staff member being in the room. We all see the videos of how he's looking for directions from off camera. I mean, the other day when he did this immigration executive order, and then at the end of it, he looks right, and then he's mouthing, Do I take questions? And they're like, No. And then he's like, Oh, okay. I mean, that's not the symbol of strength and leadership that America needs. I I've seen it. A lot of my colleagues have seen it during the State of the Unions. He comes in and he's running at 100 miles an hour, and then once it hits the 30-minute mark, he starts slowing down. I think that's why you have some people saying, Well, are they giving him something to be able to get through these times where he has to be out there in front. I think the other thing is we've never seen an American President not be in control of the bully pulpit. Donald Trump had control of the bully pulpit.

Barack Obama had had control of it. George W. Bush had control of it. Bill Clinton had control of it. Joe Biden is nowhere to be seen. The only reason why people know he's President is because Karin Jean-Pierre and Merrick Garland and Tony Blinken do all the talking. You don't see him talking to the American people a lot unless things get into a crisis mode, which under his presidency happens every three to four months. It's always some new crisis. So I think there's a legitimate concern about his mental abilities today. And for people who want to naysay, I would say, take a look at the last two press conferences. Or better yet, watch the debate that's going to happen on June 27th, and compare that to the debates from 2020, and compare that to the vice presidential debate against Paul Ryan back in 2012. You will see from 2012 to 2020 to 2024, this is a very different Joe Biden. It's not just about age.

Final question. What do you think is not being discussed enough on the national stage in terms of the presidential campaigns right now?

I'd probably say the thing that's not being discussed enough, and that's because having a discussion typically flows through media sources, is the lack of trust people have in old media. I think that that's one of the reasons why you're seeing this shift in public polling. I think it's why if you watch... I watch MSNBC, I watch CNN, I watch Fox. I watch them all. And this is why I think when they go through their polling breakdowns, they're not apoplectic yet, but they're like, what's going on here? This doesn't look right, is because I think they still yearn for the days of ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. With what the Daily Wire has done with a lot of different outfits, what they're doing, the divergence in media and the divergence in thought process in media is leading to a divergence in political thought amongst the country. That's a very good thing, in my opinion. I think that's the thing that's not been talked about enough. I think Elon buying X has been revolutionary in terms of thought actually getting out there for people to truly compare and have debates online or read other pieces of information, see other pieces of information.

The ability for the United States to maintain true freedom of speech is monumental for this presidential election and every other election to follow.

Well, congressman, thank you so much for talking with us. Thank you. That was Florida Republican congressman Byron Donalds, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.