Pro-Trump Democratic Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones called on federal investigators Friday to look into the origin of the mobs that harassed him and other attendees of the Republican National Convention.
“Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the entire DNC and Congress and all the state heads and chairs of Democratic parties, they need to come out and denounce this hatred, this vitriol, condemn Black Lives Matter and then Antifa,” Jones told Fox News.
“Congress should hold hearings […] and hear testimonies from those of us who are being attacked. It should also do a thorough investigation to see who’s funding … these professional domestic terrorists, and they should be held accountable,” he added.
Jones was among the several lawmakers and others who were accosted by protesters Thursday as they left the South Lawn of the White House on the final night of the Republican National Convention.
According to footage of the incident outside the White House, belligerent Black Lives Matter activists surrounded Jones, asking him if he was Trump supporter and demanding he say Breonna Taylor’s name.
Belligerent Black Lives Matter activists surrounded and harassed Rep. Vernon Jones in DC. pic.twitter.com/o0t3PrSBRb
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 28, 2020
“What it showed to me is that black lives don’t matter because I am a black person, I am a black life, so the hypocrisy that Black Lives Matter showed me right there, and verified and validated what I’d already been saying, is that black lives don’t matter,” Jones said of what happened.
Jones delivered an endorsement speech for President Donald Trump on Monday in which he torched his party for tolerating violence and being “infected” with “bigotry.” He afterward tweeted, “Yesterday, I addressed the Republican National Convention. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I’m breaking free. The Left doesn’t own me. I’m breaking the chains.”
Yesterday, I addressed the Republican National Convention.
I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I’m breaking free.
The Left doesn’t own me. I’m breaking the chains. pic.twitter.com/JfqFz9EwRx
— Vernon Jones (@RepVernonJones) August 25, 2020
Jones’s call for an investigation echoed Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who was also targeted by a mob, which required him to move with a police escort.
As The Daily Wire reported, Paul was also suspicious that the protests roiling Washington, D.C., were organized and funded by interstate groups:
Paul later added that while it sounds “over-the-top,” he believes “we’re going to find out that these people are hired and from out of town, specifically in our case, I believe there are going to be people who are involved with the attack on us that actually were paid to come here, are not from Washington, D.C., and are sort of paid to be anarchists.”
“This is disturbing because really, if you’re inciting a riot, that’s a crime, but if you’re paying someone to incite a riot, that person needs to go to jail as well—but we can’t live this way,” Paul continued. “It’s become so dangerous for us, and I don’t hear Joe Biden or Kamala Harris saying one thing about the violence. This mob is their voters. This is the new Democrat Party, and if we don’t resist this, United States is going to become Portland. We’re going to become Chicago. All of these failed cities Democrats have run—the president said it in his speech—if we allow them to take over the White House, we are going to become Portland, the country will be on fire. We have to have law and order and we have to support the police. I can’t say that strong enough.”