Freshman Rep. Jones says his objecting colleagues should be held responsible for riots alongside Trump

I spoke with Jones on Thursday about what transpired, how it laid bare discrepancies in the way Black protesters are treated compared to the mostly White rioters in the Capitol Wednesday, and why he believes that Trump and Republican lawmakers who sided with his election challenges should be removed from office.

Jones, 33, is an attorney who began his activist as a teen with the NAACP. After he announced his intention to unseat Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D.-N.Y.), she chose not to seek reelection. Jones’s name is mentioned among the most liberal Democrats in Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D.-N.Y.), another freshman lawmaker.

Here’s our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.

Scott: Can you connect what you experienced yesterday to what you’ve previously experienced with law enforcement?

Jones: As a young Black man experiencing yesterday’s event, I am acutely aware of the fact that I would not have been under siege by a mob of domestic terrorists had they been Black because they would have been gunned down before they made it within spitting distance of the Capitol.

We see the way Black protesters for racial justice are treated, who demonstrate peacefully, and contrast that with images of Capitol police officers taking selfies with MAGA supporters who have breached Capitol security and also letting mobs through metal barricades so that they are able to get closer to the Capitol, which is reflected in some of the footage I saw in social media as well.

Scott: What do you think needs to happen now?

I think there must be accountability at all levels. Obviously the president of the United States needs to be impeached again. That’s why I’ve co-sponsored articles of impeachment. The reason yesterday happened, in part at least, is because this president knows that there are never any consequences for his criminal conduct, both legally and politically.

And I also want to signal to the other “Donald Trumps” in the Republican Party who want to run for president or any other office that there will be consequences for their conduct if they, too, decide to incite violence. I’m also co-sponsoring [Democratic Missouri Rep.] Cori Bush’s resolution to investigate and expel any of my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate who were co-conspirators in the incitement of yesterday’s violent insurrection.

Scott: Is there anything President-elect Biden needs to do?

Joe Biden needs to continue to condemn yesterday’s assault on the legislative branch of the United States government, and he needs to also call for consequences for the people responsible and become a champion for democracy reforms like those contained in the For the People Act [legislation aimed at expanding voting rights and limiting gerrymandering].

I want everyone to remember that yesterday began as a myth about voter fraud. My Republican colleagues — 140 of them in the House — who objected to the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, for example, and not pointed to actual voting fraud. Republicans in Congress are doing this to lay the foundation for another decade of voter suppression. It is no coincidence that today we are hearing about proposals to make it more difficult to vote in Georgia after that state helped to deliver the presidency to Joe Biden and control of the Senate to Democrats.

Scott: How does this situation change your view of America as a whole, if at all?

As a Black man in America, I knew already that we live in a nation where very powerful people are deeply racist. And indeed that racism pervades our institutions, but even I was shocked by the number of my Republican colleagues who were complicit in yesterday’s events, and I do count among them every single Republican who objected to the Pennsylvania certification yesterday after witnessing their own lives and the lives of their colleagues put at risk.

I mean, I was on the House floor along with approximately 200 other members of Congress and staffers and including people in the gallery overlooking the House floor, when not just the Capitol was overtaken, but when it was not clear that we would be protected from these insurrectionists on the other side of the door into the House chamber, where there was only a sprinkling of law enforcement agents to protect us from dozens of terrorists who were banging on the door. And who eventually did get into the House chamber after we were evacuated to another location. Many of us, myself included, thought that we would have to physically fight for our lives yesterday and were unsure that we would survive.