Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones, joined Yahoo Finance, to discuss why he, a Democract, is backing President Trump ahead of the 2020 election and gives his thoughts on how this administration has handled the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

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KRISTIN MYERS: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. I'm Kristin Myers. And this is "2020-- A Time for Change." The Republican National Convention is underway. And tonight, President Trump will give his presidential acceptance speech.

Now, Republicans have spent this week trying to engage voters, particularly Black voters, who they say will continue to benefit from the president's criminal justice reforms and economic policies. Sibile Marcellus and Jen Rogers will also join me discussing what's politically focused. So we're going to start today's conversation with a Black Democrat who is endorsing President Trump. Sibile?

SIBILE MARCELLUS: That's right. So Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones is the Democrat lawmaker who actually supports President Trump. And he spoke about it during the Republican Convention this week. And he's here with us now. Representative Jones, what is it about President Trump's economic agenda for Black Americans that resonates with you?

VERNON JONES: Well, it's clear he gets results. You look prior to the pandemic, Black unemployment was at its lowest, going back to probably slavery. Black businesses were taken off the ground. New Black business were being created.

And so when you look at what this president has done, not only for economic development, or in terms, I should say, job security for Black people, but look at what he's done with the opportunity zone district. That's really targeted for Black communities who've been left behind, year in and year out, by Democrats.

And this will allow those communities to be revitalized, at the same time, job creation, and bring some level of economic development where they've been left behind. So this president has done more to help Black people, in my mind, and many others' mind, going back, whether it's Democrat or president-- Democrat or Republican, going back that last-- I'd say the last four years.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: And as it was mentioned earlier in the convention, the coronavirus pandemic happened in mid-March. So what is President Trump's plan to help African-Americans financially? Because as you know, when you look at the unemployment rate, it's higher for them in overall population.

VERNON JONES: Well, let's be clear and honest about this. This was a China virus. It came from Chinese-- the China country. Now, you can't see this thing. You can't slap it. You can't kick it. When President Trump made a move to ban travel from China, the liberal newspaper and liberal networks, they lost their minds, called him xenophobia and homophobia.

But he was trying to protect Americas-- Americans. Look how many that he has protected. Now, he's taken advice from scientists and the health officials. He's pushed out a number of resources to various states to go to local counties.

Now, you can't blame President Trump when Mayor Cuomo-- or Governor Cuomo, I should say-- made a decision to take infected seniors and put them in senior citizens facilities that hurt them.

Now, jobs-- clearly, people aren't working. This president's trying to open up the doors so people can go back to work, but the Democrats, they can't beat the president on his job record. So they want things to be closed. They want to shut down our communities. Matter of fact, they're supporting protesters and rioting and shooting and things of that nature.

And so this president, even now in this pandemic, because of that stimulus package, look how-- look at the stock market right now. It's increasing and breaking numbers, even during this pandemic. And we're seeing jobs on the increase. That's a good thing during this pandemic.

But he's working to get rid of this pandemic. He's removed restrictions, allowing these private companies to come up with a vaccination that can really put to rest this dreadful disease. But we've got to all pull together.

And the president didn't bring that disease here. And those who are trying to blame it on the president, these deaths, well, that's just-- that's, quite frankly, just a hoax. But, again, we have to pull together and work together and not be divided based on politics because it's an election year.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Mr. Jones. I want to push back on you there and just kind of highlight some of the criticisms that the president has over the last 3 and 1/2 years of his presidency, particularly on policies that are-- that many say, actually, negatively impact the Black community.

So first, I want to run through some of the things that you mentioned. You mentioned opportunity zones. Researchers, however, are saying that Black businesses have largely missed out on that money. And in fact, opportunity zones are actually better for Black-- excuse me for billionaires and for wealthy businessmen. The First Step Act, that was actually a bipartisan effort that actually preceded President Trump's presidency.

HBCU funding we've talked about on this show. One, that's funding that's appropriated by Congress. Two, that's a program that actually, also, again, preceded President Trump. And three, we've been talking to an HBCU president who said, look, that $250 million a year is a pretty meager sum for over 100 universities.

Now, on the flip side, the president has placed cuts to SNAP benefits. That's food assistance, for those at home that are unaware. He's gutted a fair housing rule that's intended to address discrimination. He's reduced efforts to address racial bias in school districts. So what exactly, when people say to you, hey, listen, the president has actually made a lot of policies that harm African-American communities, what do you even say back to them?

VERNON JONES: Well, first of all, let's go back to historical Black colleges, which I'm a proud graduate of North Carolina Central University. You know, and I know, and the American people know that the Obama-Biden administration were trying to merge those black schools into white schools. You and I know, also, funding was cut.

This president increased historical Black funding by 14%-- historic college Black funding about 14%. And at the same time, he wrote into law. Why? Because historically Black colleges presidents had to come to Congress year in and year out. And they had to fight to do what? To get funding.

Sure, this president doesn't have a vote. But he certainly has the support of the Oval Office. And he can use that Oval Office to influence legislators to vote for it. And if we use that example, that means President Obama didn't do anything because he never voted in Congress during his presidency.

And to go back to the opportunity zone districts-- yeah, anybody-- whites aren't the only ones to have resources and that are millionaire. Many blacks are. And anybody who has-- who wants to invest in those communities, they're getting the tax breaks. At the same time, those communities will have an opportunity to get economic development, infrastructure improvements, job creation. So you-- and matter of fact, many Blacks have already taken advantage of that. So to say that-- say what you just said was really disingenuous.

And let me go on one other thing, too. When you talked about policies, Joe Biden, a legislator, a senator, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee literally led legislation to do what? To create the Crime Bill, with Joe-- with President Clinton and a lot of Democrats. And what did that do? Disproportionately locked up black men and women with long prison sentence times when the crime didn't equal the time.

At the same time, that legislation provided for what? Discretion be taken away from judges. And thirdly, and just as important, they created and built all these-- all these more-- or I should say, additional prisons. And who's there? Black people.

Now, Alice Johnson appealed to the Obama administration with a Black attorney general and a Black president, if you want to call him Black. Twice, she was turned down. This lady had one-- only one offense, nonviolent, didn't have a previous record. She was turned down twice by the Obama administration. President Trump, on the other-- on the other hand, let Miss Alice Johnson go. Don't believe me. Listen to her story tonight.

And finally, when you want to look at all the Blacks that have been released during the First Step Act, and if you don't want to say that's real, then you don't have any friends-- Black friends and you don't have any Black relatives. Because many of them that I know across this country are singing praises to President Trump for giving them a chance to get out.

And finally, you know how many Black men and women died in jail? They never got a chance to get out because of those long, extended prison sentences. That is-- that is despicable. And that's what Joe Biden did. He supported that.

KRISTIN MYERS: You know, I'm going to-- I know that Jen Rogers has a question for you here. But I do have to say though, to say that some of these things are disingenuous--

VERNON JONES: But it is.

KRISTIN MYERS: --I find pretty accurate. These are just plain facts and policies--

VERNON JONES: But wait a minute. Did Joe Biden write the-- did Joe Biden write the Crime Bill?

KRISTIN MYERS: --has put out recently. You know--

VERNON JONES: Did Joe Biden write that?

KRISTIN MYERS: Please, I'm talking about President Trump right now, sir. You're here to talk about why Black voters are interested in the president that we currently have and how his economic policies are beneficial to the minority community. I'm simply bringing up criticisms that have been levied against him and some of the policies that he has made over the last couple of years that have harmed the African-American community. So I just wanted to--

VERNON JONES: What were they?

KRISTIN MYERS: --put it out there--

VERNON JONES: What were those policies that harmed African-American communities?

KRISTIN MYERS: It's a little bit unfair. But I will give--

VERNON JONES: But what were the policies?

KRISTIN MYERS: --Jen time for a question, as well.

VERNON JONES: What was the policies that harmed the African-American community that President Trump put in place?

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, let's see. Just recently, he decided to gut a fair housing rule that is essentially intended to address discrimination against the Black community. He's decided to place--

VERNON JONES: That's false.

KRISTIN MYERS: --cuts on SNAP benefits, which we already know there's a lot of Black children in poverty that need those benefits to get food. He's wanted to place cuts on that administration on those welfare benefits. So I mean, these are all things that people have said are actually harming African Americans.

VERNON JONES: You and I both know that's false and that's inaccurate. So let's take the next question.

JEN ROGERS: We're going to make this quick, because, you know, we're going back and forth here. I just wanted to-- you brought up crime. And I want to ask you about the president's executive order. You wrote an op-ed. You were touting that.

Look, we've just had another shooting of a black man, a father, in the back by a white police officer. People say nothing's changed. I mean, there is not anything-- the Democratic House wanted more than what was called for in there. What changed because of the executive order? Is anything better?

VERNON JONES: First of all, the Democratic party played tricks with Senator Tim Scott, who was genuine on real and sincere police reform. I've commanded a very large police department. And I know how this works. I've been on both sides-- shootings where officers were involved, as well as individuals who shot and killed officers. As a matter of fact, I lost two black officers in one night.

And so the president is not running a local police department. But he does stand with our police, in which I agree, which means giving them more money, more funding, and not cutting funding.

And here's why I say that. You look at police officers, the Democrats do not want to fund them. They've cut their resources. Police officers need more money for a psychological examination. They only get it when they're being hired. After that, they could be on the road 5, 10, 15 years, and nobody knows where they are mentally.

If they had more available resources where they could get frequent psychological examinations, you can tell who's burned out and who's not. And when they're making those split decisions to make or to use use-of-force, they're better prepared.

At the same time, why aren't we interested in putting more funding for high-tech constraint resources like the BolaWrap. That is certainly nonlethal. That's something that's new technology. But none of the police departments, or none of the politicians-- Democrat, I may say-- want to invest money there.

As well as the one other thing, too-- if you look at police officers, the use-of-force training and the use-of-escalation training is normally about two to four hours at max for each one of them per year. They need more training and more dollars for that training. And so that's what we need to have.

And let's not make politics out of someone dying. How many Black children get killed every weekend in Chicago? Where's Kamala Harris? Where's Joe Biden? Joe Biden has been a groundhog. He only comes out when it's safe.

Let's be honest. Black children are being killed every day by Black people. Why don't the media, Kamala Harris, and Jake Tapper, and the others go and live or spend a weekend in Chicago so they can see it firsthand and have real-time interviews? But they don't want to do that.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, State Representative Vernon Jones, it was great to have you on. Obviously, there was--

VERNON JONES: Thank you.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: --some disagreement. But it's election season. Things were hot right now. And everyone wants to see who's going to win on November 3. Thank you so much.

VERNON JONES: That's correct.