Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills has proposed the creation of a ‘J13′ committee, a direct parallel to the Democrats’ January 6th committee, to scrutinize the rhetoric of Democratic politicians in the lead-up to the assassination attempt on former President Trump’s life. Mills, speaking from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, argued that Democrats have been hypocritical in their condemnation of Trump’s rhetoric while overlooking similar statements made by their own party members.
Specifically, Mills pointed to comments made by California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters in 2018 encouraging supporters to confront President Trump, paraphrasing her statement as “Get in the face of your elected officials.” He also cited President Biden’s recent comment to donors just before the assassination attempt, saying “Put a bullseye on Trump.” Biden later retracted this comment after the incident.
Mills questioned if these remarks, similar to those investigated by the January 6th committee, constitute incitement of violence. He suggested that a ‘J13’ committee would provide a platform for holding Democratic politicians accountable for their rhetoric. “Are they not going to be also with a J13-style select committee, as we did with J6, so that we can go ahead and play a tit-for-tat on how this works? I think that we need to understand that the games that they continue to play, that the idea of their hyper-polarization of our political system, is really on them. And it’s not on the Republican Party, who is trying to take it and dial it down a notch. It’s them weaponizing our government to go after the opposition.”
On the first day of the convention, former President Trump announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate for the 2024 election. Mills, a strong supporter of Trump’s America First agenda, praised Vance for his blue-collar background, which he believes will resonate with voters. “What [Vance] represents is the fact that your socioeconomic background that you’re born into doesn’t define you. That is what makes America so great, this idea of American exceptionalism, this idea of us becoming a great nation is equal opportunity. The fact that there is no glass ceiling. That you don’t have to be born into a legacy family or generational wealth. You can build that yourself through your own hard work and your dedication and commitment.”
Mills drew parallels between Vance’s upbringing and his own, describing his experiences with poverty and family struggles due to drug addiction. He emphasized Vance’s outsider status and lack of political corruption, highlighting his youth and contrasting yet complementary approach to Trump’s political style. “I think his youth, I think that the fact that he’s still an outsider who has not been corrupted by the political world, I think that his upbringing, it’s contrasting in many ways to what President Trump has done and also complementary in many ways.”
