Lawrence Jones III's "Live From the Border" Tweet

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About

Lawrence Jones III's "Live From the Border" Tweet is a series of jokes and memes about a photograph of Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones III's wearing a bulletproof vest at the U.S.-Mexico border. People mocked the image for both the ill-fitting size of the vest and the supposed hyperbolic belief that one would need a bulletproof vest at the border.

Origin

On April 4th, 2019, Fox News contributor Larence Jones III tweeted ^[1] a photograph of himself wearing a small bulletproof vest while reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border. The post received more than 750 retweets, 4,800 likes and 8,000 comments, making it the subject of a Twitter Ratio.

Spread

Following the post, various reporters, politicians and visitors of the border refuted the need for a bulletproof vest. MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff tweeted,^[2] This is totally ridiculous. I have never once worn a bulletproof vest at the border, nor has CBP ever asked me to -- even while on a chase with Border Patrol to apprehend migrants in remote Arizona desert in the middle of the night. Because. The. Border. Is. Not. A. War. Zone." The tweet received more than 15,000 retweets and 57,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted,^[3] "
'Does “live from the border' mean Party City? Fox is really out here doing the most on a budget to make the border look more dangerous than it is." The tweet received more than 9,500 retweets and 51,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Others mocked the photograph. Twitter^[4] user @Zeddary tweeted a photograph from the comedy film Super Troopers and used the text from the original tweet (shown below, right).

Jones later responded to the criticism. He tweeted, "Border patrol made me wear it. Now, who's the fool?" The post received more than 1,400 retweets and 7,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Several media outlets covered the tweet, including Newsweek,^[5] BuzzFeed, ^[6] Mashable, ^[7] The Washington Post^[8] and more.