Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones completely humiliated a CNN reporter Wednesday, singling him out for an epic tongue-lashing in front of other reporters during a news conference with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik.
Jones, a former Democrat State Representative, blasted the CNN reporter for refusing to look into election fraud, and accused his network of being all about “controlling negroes.” Jones also ripped CNN for not inviting him on air, claiming it’s because they know he’ll call out Joe Biden for repeatedly making bigoted remarks about black people. “Joe Biden is a bigot, you know it and I know it,” Jones said.
CNN field producer Devon Sayers provoked Jones’ ire after the reporter had badgered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani about ongoing political prosecutions against him in the corrupt New York justice system during a presser about Jones’ run for governor against Gov. Brian Kemp in the state’s 2022 Republican primary.
Giuliani and Jones were speaking to reporters at a presser before a fundraising dinner in Atlanta. As the former mayor was answering Sayers’ question, Jones stepped in to turn the tables on the reporter.
He started his fusillade by demanding that the reporter ask why Biden’s attorney general is investigating Georgia’s new election integrity law while refusing to investigate the allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.
“I want you to ask the Attorney General Garland, I want you to ask him why is it that he wants to come to Georgia and investigate Georgia’s so-called ‘Jim Crow’ laws but he won’t investigate or even ask for a forensic audit in the 159 counties in Georgia,” Jones said.
Jones demanded that Sayers be as bold about asking Garland questions, as he is about hurling harassing questions toward Giuliani.
Inviting the other news cameras to focus on Sayers, Jones asked him a question about a serious election issue in Georgia, namely, whether drop-off boxes were used in the 2020 election and the 2021 run-off, and whether those drop-off boxes were written into state statute.
The CNN reporter, who was holding a Fox 5 microphone, answered that he didn’t know.
“Are you open to looking to see if they were?” Jones pressed.
“Sir, I just ask questions,” Sayers replied.
Disgusted with the reporter’s answers, Jones scoffed: “See, here’s CNN . . . CNN is about controlling Negroes. . . . That’s what CNN is about. They don’t want people of color to have conservative thoughts.”
He continued: “He’s here to keep me [from] running and keep me from being the governor of the state. Why? Because liberals, they do not want blacks thinking for themselves. They’re here for Stacey Abrams.”
Jones told Sayers, “You know and I know that the drop-off boxes were not in the state statutes. You know and I know that the ENet signature verification was not in the state statute. Right? We both know that.”
Georgia’s election integrity law, known as Senate Bill 202, seeks to prevent voter fraud by restricting the use of drop boxes, and banning mass mailings of unsolicited absentee ballots, among other things.
Jones asked Sayers if he would look into the cameras and agree to investigate the voter-fraud issues he had raised, but Sayers refused to say his network would do so.
Jones went on to accuse the network of being a “fake news” outlet that is trying to “control the liberal narrative.”
“You’ve never had me on your show before because you know Joe Biden is a bigot, and you don’t want me going on there calling Joe Biden a bigot,” Jones laughed. “Joe Biden said that black people are disproportionately affected by Covid because they don’t know how to go on the internet.” Jones also accused Biden of disparaging black people when he suggested that black businesses and entrepreneurs were unsuccessful because “they don’t have lawyers and accountants.”
“Joe Biden is a bigot, you know it and I know it, but CNN wants to put people on there to carry their narrative” he continued. “CNN is bigoted. CNN is race-based, and they’re racist, and they use you yo carry out their racist agenda,” Jones told Sayers. “It’s sad. Georgia’s too big for that. We don’t want racism in Georgia.”
After the news conference, the candidate posted video of part of his exchange on Twitter.
“If the liberal media thinks they can bully me, intimidate me, or silence me, they have another thing coming,” he tweeted. “I’m not a resident on their plantation.”
REAL journalism is dead in America.
If the liberal media thinks they can bully me, intimidate me, or silence me, they have another thing coming. I'm not a resident on their plantation. pic.twitter.com/quij54llWU
— Vernon Jones (@VernonForGA) July 1, 2021
The full exchange can be seen in the video below.
https://youtu.be/int3pz2PCyI