Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones is a Black man born and raised in the South, but he said he had never confronted anything like the angry horde that descended on him last week as he left the Republican National Convention.
As he and a female companion tried to walk two blocks from the White House to their hotel, they were surrounded by scores of screaming protesters who called him a “house” N-word and “f–—g disgrace,” then demanded that say Breonna Taylor’s name and denounce President Trump by repeating “f– Trump.”
“The filth coming out of their mouth — it was literally a lynch mob,” Mr. Jones told The Washington Times. “If it hadn’t been for those police officers, I don’t know if I would be talking to you now. My life felt threatened.”
Instead of intimidating him, however, the Democratic lawmaker said the experience only heightened his resolve to speak out against the leftist protest crowds engulfing cities, calling the unrest a form of “high-tech voter suppression through intimidation.”
“They’re intimidating you,” Mr. Jones said. “You’re afraid to even say who you’re voting for, or to wear paraphernalia. They’re instilling fear inside of you about what the consequences will be if Trump is elected. And this is real voter suppression.”
Mr. Jones, who has gained national notice as a Trump-supporting Democrat, was among those shown on viral video being besieged by Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters after the RNC’s Thursday night finale at the White House.
Others targeted by the protest included Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, and his wife, Kelley Paul, who required a police escort and Republican National Committeeman from New Hampshire Chris Ager, who was threatened by a masked woman shouting, “Put your hands on me again and I’ll f– you up” after he put up his arm to block her from approaching his wife.
Mr. Ager posted a photo the next day captioned: “With Rand Paul at White House last night 15 [minutes] before we were both targeted by Marxist BLM and Antifa thugs.”
Rep. Brian Mast, Florida Republican, had no chance of outpacing the crowd — he walks on two prosthetic limbs after having lost his legs in Afghanistan — but he stopped and attempted to answer questions as a woman repeatedly asked, “How do you feel about police killing Black people in this country?”
He said he opposed anyone being murdered or having their rights taken away, to which she shouted, “Answer the f–—g question!”
Brandon Straka, founder of the #WalkAway movement, posted footage in which several Black Lives Matter protesters called him “f–-t,” threw a drink at him, spit at his friend Mike Harlow, and knocked the phone out of the hand of another friend as they left the White House event.
He tweeted afterward that “every LGBT person in America should be terrified by the direction we’re headed in,” adding that the gay community may be afraid to speak because they are “expected to pledge obligatory devotion to this deranged cult.”
Those only represent the encounters captured on video. Mr. Jones said many more RNC attendees were mobbed and yelled at as they tried to walk to their hotels.
“I’ve gotten emails from others who said they were confronted and targeted,” said Mr. Jones. “There was nothing peaceful about it. My life was threatened, Rand Paul’s life was threatened.”
Critics on the left have downplayed the encounters, arguing that none of the Republicans were physically assaulted, but those insisting there was nothing dangerous about the protest targeting weren’t there, Mr. Jones said.
“When I hear that foolishness from the liberal media that it was mostly peaceful: Where in the hell were they when my life was threatened and other lives were threatened?” he said in a video post.
He said the experience also has increased his support for expanding hate crime laws to include political ideology and party affiliation.
“That’s a huge deal where now the left has gone so far that they’re willing to assault you to keep you from exercising your First Amendment rights, which to me plays back into, why is this not a hate crime?” said Mr. Jones.
He said he was disappointed when the Georgia legislature approved a hate crime bill in June without adding political ideology and party affiliation to the list of protected classes.
The bill signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was spurred by the killing in February of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was jogging at the time. Two White men, father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, have been charged with his murder.
“They’ve made it a hate crime to attack someone based on their religion, their race, their orientation,” Mr. Jones said. “But wait a minute, now you’re going to attack someone for their political ideology or party affiliation? That’s not considered a hate crime? That is a hate crime.”
He said everyone mobbed outside the White House after the convention was targeted for their political views, not their race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, or other protected characteristics.
“When you look at people being attacked by a lynch mob for political purposes — think about it,” said Mr. Jones. “Every single person who left the White House that night was under siege, not because of their religion, not because of their race, because if it was race, why would Black Lives Matter have Black people attacking me and try to get me to curse the president?”
He also called for congressional hearings on the protest violence that has beset major U.S. cities since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, including how protest crowds are being funded.
He said he tried to look less conspicuous by taking off his tie after an initial crowd of a dozen protesters swarmed him, but he still stood out. The streets were blocked off for the event, he said, and Uber cars were unable to reach those seeking rides to their hotels.
Video of the encounter shows police using bicycles to block protesters from reaching him, much as they did with Mr. Paul.
“What are we waiting for? Until somebody hits you? What would have happened if the officers weren’t there?” Mr. Jones said. “It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.”
