Byron Donalds Confronted by Heckler on Hamas—Fires Back, Audience Erupts [WATCH]

A town hall hosted by Rep. Byron Donalds on Monday night turned tense after a protester interrupted the Florida congressman during a discussion about the war in Gaza and later had to be escorted from the auditorium by law enforcement, as reported by Fox News.

Donalds, a Republican and ally of President Donald Trump, held the event at Estero High School as part of his run to succeed outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The confrontation began when a woman in the audience began shouting at Donalds during a discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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“The Palestinians have voted for Hamas and they have not done anything to remove Hamas,” Donalds said in response to the protester.

“So you want to have a shouting match with me? Let’s have a shouting match on the facts. 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.”

He added:

“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.”

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The woman continued shouting, prompting Donalds to address her directly.

“You think you’re being heard – and let’s be clear – you’re not.”

“What you’re doing is yelling now and you’re being disrespectful,” he said.

“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, 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 escorted from the auditorium while shouting, “Free, free Palestine!”

Later in the event, Donalds faced more pushback from the audience during a discussion on oversight involving Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was established under President Trump.

“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 is 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. And this instance, Elon Musk is essentially the head of the DOGE that Donald Trump has set up in his administration.”

As members of the crowd began to groan, Donalds continued:

“You can boo if you want to, but those are the facts. Because if you go back in time, back to 2009, 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.”

Donalds defended the DOGE’s ongoing review of government inefficiencies and reiterated that Musk’s involvement was authorized under federal guidelines.

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