Rep. Byron Donalds tears into CNN, Brianna Keilar following tense interview: 'They have a political agenda'

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Byron Donalds slams CNN, Brianna Keilar at TPUSA

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., discusses his tense exchange with CNN's Brianna Keilar at Turning Point USA conference in Tampa, Florida

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., slammed CNN anchor Brianna Keilar and her liberal network following a contentious on-air exchange the two of them had last month. 

The June 10 interview caused a firestorm on social media after Keilar pressed Donalds on why the Congressional Black Caucus has yet to welcome the GOP freshman. 

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However, Keilar spent much of the interview fixating on his past support for former President Trump and various voting rights bills she alleged would restrict minority voters, suggesting those factors may be "incongruent" with the CBC's mission. 

"Brianna Keilar tried to prove a point that she knows more about what Black voters want than I do, or frankly than anybody does. Or that Democrats somehow know more or that if you somehow supported Donald Trump… you're aren't allowed to speak for Black people and that's the reason why you're excluded," Donalds told Fox News during an interview on Sunday at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in Tampa. 

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"I think the reason why it went well is because I pushed back," he explained. "I wasn't gonna allow her to set a narrative, I wasn't gonna allow her to interrupt me trying to push in another point that she wanted to put in, I'm not going to do that. If CNN and MSNBC—they want to interview me, I'm very cordial very nice, but if you try to interrupt me to push in your agenda items, I'm gonna stop you dead in your tracks, and we're going to get back to the business of the interview."

(Reuters/Getty Images)

CNN, which presents itself as a down-the-middle media organization with straight news anchors starring in its programming lineup, is a description Donalds insisted was "not accurate at all."

"The people at CNN- they have an agenda, they have a political agenda. Let's be very clear," Donalds said. "They have a political viewpoint, the political viewpoint moves forward on everything they report. And it's not just the anchors. It's the producers and it's the people at the top of the organization."

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Donalds revealed that he watches CNN "periodically" but pointed out how in just one hour of programming he watched, the first, second and third blocks of the show were focused on Trump. 

"I mean look, our border is a mess, people aren't going back to work, you see what's going on in Cuba, you have the vaccine situation going on, there's is plenty of things to be talking about, not to mention mismanagement the federal level of massive overspending and inflation going on, but they wanna do is talk about Trump, so they do it to themselves. That's not me, that's them!"