Black Democratic state rep says Joe Biden has ‘betrayed black Americans throughout his career'

Democratic Georgia state House Rep. Vernon Jones slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a scathing op-ed recently, saying that Biden has "betrayed black Americans throughout his career in Washington."

Jones, who made headlines earlier this year when he broke from his party and endorsed President Trump's re-election campaign, doubled down in his support for the incumbent in the opinion piece published by the Daily Caller Tuesday.

"I am black and I am a Democrat. But 'I ain't' voting for Joe Biden this November," Jones wrote, making a snide reference to Biden's "you ain't black" comments to radio host Charlamagne Tha God in May.

In the op-ed, Jones homed in on major issues especially important to the black community, such as black unemployment, police reform, and criminal justice reform, and suggested that Biden has failed to lead in each of these areas.

He wrote:

The black unemployment rate under Biden and the Obama administration averaged a horrific 12.8 percent. The number of black Americans in poverty barely fell during the Obama administration, going down by just 145,000 over eight years.

By comparison, more than double that number — 350,000 black Americans — were lifted out of poverty during just the first two years of the Trump administration.

Jones then hammered Biden for supporting "mass incarceration policies," which President Trump has tried to correct.

Joe Biden is directly responsible for the mass incarceration policies of the 1980s and 1990s, which decimated the black community. Biden authored the 1994 crime bill which imposed mandatory minimum sentences, disproportionately putting hundreds of thousands of young black men in prison.

President Trump has worked to undo injustices within our criminal justice system. He signed the First Step Act, the first major reform to our criminal justice system in a decade. Thanks to the president's leadership on this issue, our criminal justice system is fairer and our communities are safer.

The outspoken state lawmaker also criticized Biden and the Democratic Party for acquiescing while progressives across the country "absurd[ly]" call for police departments to be defunded or dismantled.

Jones, formerly the chief executive officer of DeKalb County, Georgia, which position oversees the police department, said the "extreme calls" to defund police "will only lead to more pain and suffering in our most vulnerable communities."

The choice is clear, Jones argued, as Democrats like Biden pander for votes, Trump has worked toward real progress for the black community.

"As black Americans, we need to be aware of the clear choice in front of us. Joe Biden has betrayed black Americans throughout his career in Washington. President Trump has spent his 3.5 years in office fighting to improve the lives of black Americans," he wrote. "We cannot be tricked again. Democrats like Biden will conveniently appear in our neighborhoods and pander to us from now until November. Why? Because they only care about black people during election years."