Donald Trump-endorsed Georgia congressional candidate Vernon Jones said Thursday that civil rights don’t apply to the gay community because he insisted that gay people “can actually change” to become straight.
And if they do that, they also apparently don’t need any civil rights protections, Jones indicated.
“Civil rights for Blacks, and gay rights for gays are two different things,” Jones declared to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his “War Room” podcast.
“I don’t know what you are unless you tell me what you are if you’re gay. When I walk into that room, you can tell that I’m Black. I’m Black from cradle to grave,” Jones said. “Let’s not get that confused.”
He added: “They can actually change. You know you can go from being straight to being gay to being transgender and all these other genders. When you’re Black, I don’t have a choice. ... When did gays come over here on [slave] ships?”
Jones also tried to drive a wedge between advocates for gay rights and anti-racists with a tweet.
Jones has hit a few snags in his campaign.
Former House Speaker House Newt Gingrich released a video endorsing Jones earlier this week, then flip-flopped hours later and released a video backing his GOP rival Mike Collins, CNN reported. The Gingrich team blamed “junior staff” for the mix-up, but it was clearly Gingrich who spoke on the contradictory videos.
Jones and Collins are running for an open House seat against a large field of Republican candidates.
Jones, now a Republican, was a keynote speaker at the 2020 Republican National Convention, and boasted of his support for Trump in the presidential election. But he voted Democratic in the primary, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last month. He also served as a Democratic state representative in Georgia.
Trump in an endorsement video called Jones “an America-first fighter, who will never back down to the establishment or the radical left.”
Jones’ comments on Bannon’s podcast and his tweet drove Twitter critics bonkers.