Democratic Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones, who endorsed President Trump for reelection in April, said Democrats thought that “by getting Kamala Harris” on the ticket “that that would help them save the Black vote, but that was the wrong person for that job to do that.”
Jones made the comments on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday, one day after Harris, the politically shrewd California senator with a law enforcement background that has caused some tensions with the progressive left, was announced Tuesday as Joe Biden’s running mate.
“This was a good day for President Trump” Jones said. He then pointed out that “Trump has a better record on helping black men and women than Kamala Harris has, than Joe Biden has and as this story gets told more and more African-Americans are coming his way and that is what they're afraid of.”
“She flip-flops,” Jones added on Wednesday. He also accused her of saying “anything she can to get elected.”
“Joe Biden has the right string, but the wrong yo-yo,” he went on to say, pointing out that Harris is “liberal.”
He added, “She accused Biden of being biased when it came to busing.”
The decision to choose Harris, following months of secret meetings and closely held deliberations, would indicate the former vice president is setting aside their friction from the primary campaign. Jones was pointing to the fact that Harris memorably drew sharp contrasts with Biden when she challenged him on the debate stage over his past resistance to federally mandated desegregation busing.
He also pointed out that “she also said that she believed the women that accused him of sexual assault.”
“And so how can you believe in someone who is a racist, someone who has committed sexual assault, but you want to be on his ticket?” Jones asked. “That sounds like blind ambitions over really the Black community and Black voters.”
He went on to say that he “even heard Black women say that was a bad pick.”
“I think President Trump got probably one of the best announcements yesterday than he’s had this campaign season,” Jones continued.
Signaling the campaign's line of attack against Harris, President Trump responded by tweeting out an attack ad soon after the announcement that called her “phony Kamala Harris.”
Host Ainsley Earhardt noted that “the president is saying that she is the most liberal choice.”
She then asked Jones, “How is that going to fair in the flyover states and in the south?”
“Obviously, she is not going to do well in the south being liberal. As a matter of fact, we're trying to see who has the best record on locking Black men up, her or Joe Biden,” he said in response.
Jones stressed that “this is about blind ambitions.”
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“She is only in it for herself and not the American people,” Jones continued.
He went on to say that “coming from California, she supports these Democrat mayors and governors who do not believe in supporting law enforcement, as a matter of fact, want to defund law enforcement.”
“She is all over the place. She’s flip-flopping like I don't know what,” Jones said. “But, we're delighted. She doesn't have a chance here in Georgia and other southern states.”
The now-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s selection amounts to a vote of confidence in the senator’s political ability and her background, and a willingness to move past the bad blood. The decision may have been tipped days earlier, when he was photographed with talking points saying of Harris that he does “not hold grudges” and has “great respect for her.”
The choice also fulfills a commitment the former vice president made in March to name a woman as running mate. Naming a Black woman at a time when issues of racial inequality are front-and-center also responds to signals from some circles in the party that such a choice could help build bridges with the Black community.
“Most people can see right through that smokescreen,” Jones said on Wednesday.
Regarding her having to take on Vice President Mike Pence in the upcoming debates, Jones said Pence will “chew her up.”
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Jones pointed out Pence is “smooth, he’s cool, he’s calm and he’s collected and he’s been a chief executive, he’s had to run a government and he’s been in Congress and he’s serving as vice president.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.