Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones kowtowed to Trump and cost us dearly. Next stop: Congress!

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones will yet again offer himself up to the voters, this time to represent the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District.

Jones’ last congressional bid, in 2016, wasn’t a catastrophe: He lost to Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera by less than three points.

Jones tweeted that he “will fight for law and order in America, stand up against the ‘Defund the Police’ movement and secure our border. “

“It’s time to put the safety of America and Americans first again.”

Jones forgot to work critical race theory into his list of Republican buzz phrases, but there’s still time.

I vividly recall Jones’ squirming when I asked him about his views on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. Jones was a fan of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio then, but I asked him to contrast Trump with the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, someone Jones professed to admire.

Jones couldn’t bring himself to even gently rebuke Trump for saying he admired veterans who “weren’t captured” — a despicable insult to McCain, a Vietnam War hero who endured years of torture as a prisoner of war. Jones’ pained circumlocution made me realize that he wasn’t remotely up to the job.

Jones later said he would vote for Trump but not endorse him. Bold leadership there. God knows where he is on Trump now, but Jones spent time kowtowing to him while he was president. Of course, so did Rubio and scads of other Republican cowards.

If Jones gets to Congress, which is not out of the realm of possibility, he’ll likely be another Trump mouthpiece.

My guess is that Jones will again equivocate about a man no less an authority than Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said was “morally responsible” for a coup against the U.S. government. Law and order, you know. So important to America!

Forget the 140 injured Capitol law enforcement personnel and Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died after he engaged rioters as they breached the U.S. Capitol.

Jones didn’t think it was that big of a deal that some of his deputies flew across the country to attend the rally that preceded the insurrection on Jan. 6, either. Oh, well. Support the blue, except when you don’t.

In the primary, Jones faces Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), who racked up 3.5% of the vote in his recall bid last year, behind several other Kevins. Let’s forget Kiley for a moment (if only we could) and imagine Jones as a member of Congress.

Secure the border? All his boy Trump did was use the border as a campaign prop to fire up the crazies.

Stand up against defunding the police? The police aren’t really in danger of being defunded. And Trump said the rioters who terrorized police as they stormed the Capitol were “very special.” Trump said: “We love you.”

Given Jones’ escapades over the past few years — do you have all day? — I’m not sure precisely what he would bring to Congress. I suppose he could man the metal detectors on the House floor, installed because the GOP’s sedition caucus couldn’t be trusted.

Honesty in government? Hmm. Jones and his cronies helped themselves to a trust fund for those incarcerated in Sacramento County to pay for all sorts of fun stuff not related to inmate welfare. You know: stays at a Tahoe resort and, oh, he spent $1.45 million on a camera system.

“This is flat-out abuse,” Bay Area Assemblyman Bill Quirk wrote on Twitter after The Bee broke the story.

Accountability? No luck there. Jones has steadfastly worked to ensure that he’s not really subjected to that sort of thing.

He threw a hissy fit when Rick Braziel, the former county inspector general, questioned whether Jones’ officers had to gun down a Black man named Mikel McIntyre on Highway 50. Jones responded by locking Braziel out of all buildings where sheriff’s deputies work. That way, Braziel couldn’t do his job by, you know, investigating fatal shootings by Jones’ officers.

Jones’ record of managing the county jails alone should disqualify him for any office higher than … well, all of them.

His jails have been described as “inhumane.” Sacramento County taxpayers will have to shell out millions because of his neglect. Oh, and Jones let Netflix shoot “Jailbirds,” a slimy reality TV show documenting all the hideousness while his deputies ignored brawling inmates.

Maybe C-SPAN can pick up a reality series about Jones if he gets to Congress. Plenty of ignored brawls there as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dawdles until 2023.

These are just the lowlights of Jones’ decade as the top lawman in Sacramento. There is so much more.

He’s been a dreadful sheriff. But he’ll fit right into the GOP caucus as a truly accomplished and enabling careerist.

Hey, it worked for Kevin McCarthy.