Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday mocked Fox News correspondent Lawrence Jones for wearing a bulletproof vest while reporting from a portion of U.S. Southern border where a shooting had recently occurred.
“Does ‘live from the border’ mean Party City?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted with photos of Jones in the green vest provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). “Fox is really out here doing the most on a budget to make the border look more dangerous than it is,” the freshman congresswoman added.
Following Ocasio-Cortez’s post, Jones appeared on the Fox News Channel, explaining to host Sean Hannity that CBP agents advised that he don the protective garment to keep him safe because “just two months ago, there was a shooting.”
Jones said the agents had told him: “We control this side of the border, but the cartel controls the other side of the border. There’s been gun fights.”
He responded directly to Ocasio-Cortez’s mockery, challenging her to meet with Border Patrol in the area.
Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the only person to mock Jones. Political commentator Roland Martin, who was suspended and later resigned from CNN amid accusations of encouraging violence against gay men in a 2012 tweet, suggested Jones wore the vest to boost his “speaking fees.”
“Y’all need a good laugh? Look at this. Lawrence thinks he’s headed to a war zone. Is this gonna increase your speaking fees, Lawrence? Game recognize game,” Martin tweeted with the hashtag #AllAboutTheBenjamins.
“Border patrol made me wear it. Now, who’s the fool?” Jones shot back at Martin.
MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff apparently set off the dogpile of Jones’ photo, saying wearing the vest was “totally ridiculous.”
“I have never once worn a bulletproof vest at the border, nor has CBP ever asked me to — even while on a chase with Border Patrol to apprehend migrants in remote Arizona desert in the middle of the night,” said Soboroff.
“Because. The. Border. Is. Not. A. War. Zone,” he added.
Brandon Darby, Breitbart News’ director of border and cartel coverage, weighed in on the online fracas, calling Soboroff uninformed and inaccurately “generalizing.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet came one day after the 29-year-old claimed in an Instagram Live video that CBP officials are “injecting kids with drugs” based on their “national origin.”
“At least I’m not trying to cage children at the border and inject them with drugs. That’s not a mistake, that’s just hatred,” the New York Democrat said on Wednesday.
As Breitbart News’ Katherine Rodriguez reported, the self-avowed Democratic socialist has previously made derogatory statements about federal immigration officials. Appearing January 2019 on MSNBC with host Rachel Maddow, Ocasio-Cortez described U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as “human rights violators.”
She has called for ICE’s abolishment numerous times.
Ocasio-Cortez has also suggested illegal alien border crossers are “more American” than President Donald Trump’s supporters, and has called for illegal aliens to be allowed to enter the United States without legal repercussions.