Advocated Privatizing Social Security, Then Denied Republicans Ever Wanted Cuts
What Byron said then
“Changes to Social Security and Medicare need to be 'studied' to ensure their solvency. Supported frameworks for privatizing Social Security.”
2012–2022
What he says now
“I am telling you, not true. The president has tried to conflate the two to make a political argument. No Republican has said 'We're going to look at Social Security and Medicare.'”
February 2023
Context
For years Donalds supported studying privatization of Social Security and entertained frameworks for reducing entitlement obligations. When Biden called out Republicans for wanting to cut Social Security during his 2023 State of the Union, Donalds went on CNN to flatly deny it—saying 'not true' and accusing Biden of creating a 'fallacy.' Host Kaitlan Collins fact-checked him live, pointing to Republican proposals on record. He was unable to reconcile his own past statements with his on-air denial.
The bottom line
Denied in real time what his own record shows—and got caught on live television doing it