Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones: 'We are free people with free minds'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A Democratic Georgia lawmaker who endorsed President Donald Trump spoke Monday during the first day of the Republican National Convention.

State Rep. Vernon Jones, who represents parts of DeKalb and Rockdale counties, said the Democrats have done nothing to further Blacks in society.

"The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave the mental plantation," he says. "We've been forced to be there for decades and generations."

The self-proclaimed life-long Democrats said the party to which he has served doesn't like independent thinkers and that President Trump is the right leader for the country right now.

Jones said this is "no time for sleeping in the basement" saying that the former Vice President Joe Biden has had 47 years in public service to create change, but has failed to do so.

He also has a message for Biden: "We are free people with free minds."

Jones said growing up in the Deep South and as the former chief executive officer of DeKalb County with one of Georgia's largest police forces, he has witnesses tragic shootings on both sides. 

"Police officers are fellow citizens, they live in our country," Jones said. "Democrats have turned their backs on our police officers."

He said Democrats have just been pandering to Black Lives Matter.

He also said the Democratic Party has been "infected with a pandemic" of intolerance, bigotry, socialism, anti-law enforcement bias, and a "dangerous tolerance for people who attack others, destroy their property, and terrorize our own communities."

Jones also touted Trump's actions supporting Blacks in America including his funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.