Florida Rep. Mills floats ‘J13’-style committee for Democrats’ rhetoric following Trump assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE — Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills floated the idea of a "J13" committee styled after the Democrats' Jan. 6 committee after Democrats' anti-Trump rhetoric in the lead-up to the assassination attempt on the 45th president's life. 

"Look, I think we need to identify the hypocrisy here. Whenever President Trump on Jan. 6 said, "Go home peacefully,’ but he was upset about things, he doesn’t have control of what people who are evil or have intent to cause bodily harm does. But yet they ridiculed him, and they still utilize the J6 argument as a way to try and vilify Republicans," Mills told Fox News Digital from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 

"Well, what about other rhetoric that has been said by Maxine Waters? ‘Get in the face of your elected officials,'" he said, paraphrasing California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters' 2018 comment encouraging supporters to harass President Donald Trump at the time.

"'Put a bullseye on Trump,'" he said, paraphrasing President Biden's comment this month to donors just ahead of the assassination attempt against Trump Saturday during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Biden backtracked on the comment after Trump was shot in the ear in Pennsylvania. 

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Rep.-elect Cory Mills, R-Fla., attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center about a resolution requesting information from the Biden administration on Ukraine funding Nov. 17, 2022.  (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Mills asked if those remarks were not also incitement of violence and if Democratic politicians would face a select committee similar to the J6 committee that investigated the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

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"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." 

President Biden speaks at a campaign rally in Madison, Wis. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On the first day of the convention Monday, Trump announced JD Vance as his his running mate. Mills praised the freshman Ohio senator as a strong supporter of Trump's America First agenda. 

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The Florida congressman added that Vance's background from a blue-collar family will likely speak volumes to voters, striking a similar chord to his own upbringing. 

U.S. Sen. JD Vance and wife Usha Chilukuri Vance look on as he is nominated for the office of vice president on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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"I grew up in a broken home where drug addiction and substance abuse, and things like this, was prevalent, and it destroyed our family," Mills said. "My father spent time in prison. My mother spent time, because I was raised by my grandparents. And we lived in poverty. I can remember us living on around $6,800 for an entire year. We believed in having to hunt and fish." 

Former President Trump, a Republican presidential nominee, and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance react during the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee July 15, 2024.  (Reuter/Mike Segar)

Mills argued that Vance's background from a working-class family before his nomination as Trump's running mate will resonate with many Americans. 

"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.

"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," Mills said.