A Fox News Contributor Wearing An Amusingly Tiny Tactical Vest At The Southern Border Quickly Became A Meme

Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones III has become Twitter’s brief center of attention this week over a Hannity segment filmed at the southern US border at Laredo, Texas, just a short distance away from one of the “three Mexican countries.” During part of the segment on Wednesday night, Jones told host Sean Hannity that “a lot of these criminals come out at night to make these crossings,” while he donned a tiny “tactical” vest, the word tactical being in quotes because this vest is lacking both adequate coverage and bulletproof inserts. It’s hard to resist the temptation to look at the vest while singing, Chris Farley-style, “News guy in a little vest…

People made jokes and memes about the vest (see further down below), pointing out both the small size and the lack of plates (meaning it was just for show). Plenty of folks, including other journalists, lambasted the uselessness of the vest or even accused Jones of trying to make potential border crossers in the Laredo, Texas, area appear more dangerous to inflame the home viewers’ anger and fright. (The violent crime rate in Laredo, Texas, is 16.5% lower than the statewide average, according to the FBI.)

Here’s another look at the vest, which spurred more questions and jokes:

https://twitter.com/LawrenceBJones3/status/1113763507101741056

https://twitter.com/KELLYWEILL/status/1113823023491166209
https://twitter.com/jkass99/status/1113830317947637760
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1113852935065280512

https://twitter.com/KorsakoffK/status/1113821695377387520

Jones took to Twitter throughout the day on Thursday to defend himself, saying “Border patrol made me wear it”:

Not everyone was buying it:

https://twitter.com/crushingbort/status/1113890025480032256
https://twitter.com/SingedPhoenix/status/1113849937140146176
https://twitter.com/jamiepastore/status/1113833340333895683

https://twitter.com/RealBrianCutter/status/1113827907196071936

https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/1113820587254636545

https://twitter.com/RealBrianCutter/status/1113821440632131585

Matters only got more complicated from there when people noticed Jones had tweeted a picture of himself with CBP without the vest:

On Thursday night, Jones returned to Hannity in a bigger vest:

https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/1113979999902679040

Jones defended himself, saying CBP “told me to put it on to keep us safe here. Just two weeks ago — two months ago, I’m sorry — there was a shooting. What people don’t understand is that we control this side of the border, but the cartel controls the other side of the border, so there’s been gun fights.”

https://twitter.com/VidsPol/status/1114112236216311808

But the jokes didn’t stop, and we haven’t seen a Fox News personality turned into a meme this quickly since Pete Hegseth said germs aren’t real and Dana Perino made queso (those two stories have no overlap, we hope).

https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/1113995315525365761

https://twitter.com/SmasChingon/status/1114030098179555329

(Hat tip to Newsweek, Buzzfeed News, and Super Punch)