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Transcript: Rep. Byron Donalds on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Aug. 23, 2026

2026-08-23T12:26:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida and candidate for Florida governor, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 23, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. He’s also now his party’s gubernatorial nominee in the Sunshine State. Welcome to Face the Nation.

REP BYRON DONALDS: Good morning, Margaret. Good to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’re a sitting congressman, but this job that you are running for would make you the chief executive of the third largest state in the country, so you’ll have a lot of decision-making power over a number of things, including health policy. And I want to ask you about that because Florida has been at the forefront of this push to roll back vaccine mandates. In your state, the Department of Health can change some others, like polio and MMR vaccines, are mandated under Florida law. If you’re elected, are you going to go to the Department of Health and the state legislature and ask for repeals? If so, which ones?

REP BYRON DONALDS: Well, first of all, Margaret, it’s good to be with you. Number one, I know that Governor DeSantis and and our Surgeon General Dr. Ladapo have already made moves on the rulemaking vaccines, the one, and put those under essentially giving parents the ability to make those decisions for their children. I agree with that decision. When it comes to polio, MMR, those are things that we want to make sure we study and really engage in before we make those determinations and work with the legislature before we make any of those decisions about requirements for those vaccines. I think it’s important also to note that President Trump did allow for expansion and, really, quite frankly, reversing the concentration around the vaccine schedule. I know that my oldest son, he’s 22 years old. The vaccination schedule for him was very different for kids today, and so spreading out that vaccination schedule, I think, does make sense. It gives an infant human body the ability to actually absorb and deal with that that rate of vaccination. But if we’re going to talk healthcare, the bigger issue we have in the state of Florida is costs. And number one, the Affordable Care Act is not working for Floridians. We have seen premiums jump over the last 15 years since it passed. Deductibles—out of control for the last 15 years, and so the current structure of health insurance in our country under the Affordable Care Act is not working is not working for families, whether it’s Florida or anywhere else in the United States. This is why my proposal is price transparency. We want doctors’ offices and hospitals to post a real cash price for the top 20 services that they provide. So Floridians have an opportunity to see the real price, see the real cost, and make determinations about where they get their health care. I think that’s much more of a constructive conversation about costs in healthcare and trying to stabilize prices than just simply vaccinations.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but that also doesn’t address coverage for them or how they pay for them. But I hear you. I’m sure a lot of people would like to know what they’re paying. But in terms of keeping people healthy, nearly all of Florida is below the 95% immunization rate for herd immunity for measles. So, is your message to Florida parents, get your kids vaccinated against that one?

REP BYRON DONALDS: No, actually, my message to Floridians and, quite frankly, to Americans is the reason why we have seen a measles outbreak in certain parts of the country is because of rampant illegal immigration into the United States from the previous administration. Margaret, before Joe Biden came to office, when our borders were basically secure (CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: What evidence do you have of that?

REP BYRON DONALDS: Margaret, we’ve seen the outbreaks in El Paso, Texas, in Southwest Florida, where I live, and many other parts where you know that you have a situation. People have come into the country illegally, have not had that vaccination schedule, and not the ones today on young kids that parents do have concerns about. (CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you want them to be vaccinated?

REP BYRON DONALDS: I’m talking about previous ones where people weren’t even getting measles vaccine or mumps and rubella. So the key thing is, you number one, you got to control immigration into your country. You can’t have an entire segment of people more than 10 million coming to your country without that vaccination schedule. That’s how you end up having some of these outbreaks. And so that’s number one. But number two, and I will tell you, we could talk vaccinations, but the real issue in healthcare is the cost for Americans and the cost for Floridians, and we have already seen that the regulatory framework of the Affordable Care Act is driving up costs on every American, and that’s what I want to stay focused on as the next governor of Florida.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so you want vaccinated immigrants? Let me ask you about some of those immigrants. There are—

REP BYRON DONALDS: Actually I just want legal immigrants to be clear. I just want legal immigration with assimilation. We cannot have open borders and we cannot have illegal immigration in our country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about legal immigration. There were 158,000 Haitians legally living in Florida under Temporary Protected Status or TPS until the Trump administration ended that program, You know, when it comes to Haiti, the State Department tells Americans don’t go there for any reason at all. There’s crime, there’s terrorism, there’s no healthcare access, there’s kidnapping. You said that this TPS program was just to be a temporary refuge, but aren’t all those conditions I listed there? The reason you would want temporary refuge shouldn’t there be some protection?

REP BYRON DONALDS: Well, Margaret, number one, let’s be let’s speak specific to Haiti. I’ve actually had meetings with the transitional government and the ambassador for the transitional government. They’re working on security forces right now as we speak to begin to stabilize Haiti, they’ve gotten about a quarter to half of the country under control from the gangs that basically took over Haiti, and that’s number one. Number two, you just said it at the top, TPS is a temporary program. The Biden administration, through through enforcement, took the T off the program. They turned that into a permanent program. Not to mention catch and release. Not to mention how they bastardized asylum and didn’t allow for true asylum cases to come to the United States. They blew up the borders. More than 10 million people came into our country. And so yes, there has to be a standard when it comes to immigration. The Trump administration, in my view, making sure that it’s a temporary program is correct. But we are also working with the transitional government to make sure that the right security forces are in Haiti to stabilize that country. So that entire process is going to take time. What you can’t do in immigration is just say that every program just runs into perpetuity with no end, because once you do that, you have the wrong incentives to make sure that people can return to their home country, stabilize that country, and make sure that it returns to normalcy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I hear you, and hopefully you have your earpiece in there, Congressman Carlos. Okay, Carlos Giménez, your fellow Floridian, said deporting Haitians under TPS would be a huge mistake for Florida. Another Florida Republican Maria Elvira Salazar says those TPS holders are part of the backbone of our workforce in critical sectors like healthcare. So, do you have a plan to replace the loss of 100,000 Haitians who work in healthcare in Florida if they are deported?

REP BYRON DONALDS: Well, let’s just be very clear. You’re talking about the labor force in Florida. What we want to do is, the number one, we want to make sure that our kids coming out of high school are having internships and apprenticeships and the necessary workforce training to be able to work, whether it’s healthcare or any other job field. Right now, about a third to a half of our kids are going into the college university system. The other half, quite frankly, there is no strategy or plan for them to be successful. This is why I have a launchpad initiative in Florida, where if you’re a junior or a senior in high school, you can actually have those apprenticeships and internships, so that by the time you graduate high school, you’re walking directly into the job. (CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is an immediate shortage of healthcare workers. (CROSSTALK)

REP BYRON DONALDS: Hold on, Margaret. Hold on, Margaret. Number. Hold on, Margaret. Number two, number two. There are jobs available in Florida. We want to change adult re-education, adult education, career source. Have that really be supercharged so people can transition from one job or going into those fields. That’s number two. Number three, and this is a broader American issue. You cannot let the borders of our country be blown wide open, and then talk about well, we need people in this field or that field, and not actually have consistent immigration policy. And so, a lot of what you’re talking about really stems from terrible decisions when it comes to immigration from the Biden administration—

MARGARET BRENNAN: I was asking about your plans.

REP BYRON DONALDS: And quite frankly, from the Democrats like Angie Nixon, like David Jolly. That’s the problem that we are presented with, we have to have a stable standard in immigration and naturalization, and that comes with following the law, not letting Democrats ignore our law, allow for illegal immigration, and look at the problems (CROSSTALK)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, that’s federal. I was asking your plan in your state to make up for the shortage of healthcare workers that are about to be deported.

REP BYRON DONALDS: Margaret, I just gave you the plan, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I hear you. It could take a while. We’ll have to leave it there.

REP BYRON DONALDS: Yeah, Margaret, I just gave you the plan, but I’m also a member of Congress, and so you have to have a standard for immigration while making sure that our children in our schools today and young people working today have the ability to move into those fields and those careers while making enough money to build the American dream for themselves.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll watch your campaign. Thank you very much, Congressman Donalds, who is standing for gubernatorial race November.