CNN commentator Van Jones, who famously called the election of Donald Trump in 2016 a “white-lash” against a black president, is now apparently not hateful enough for the intolerant left. On The View Friday, liberal hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro teamed up to bully their guest, accusing him of "providing racial cover" for Trump, even though he’s spent his CNN career attacking the former president.
But before these tense exchanges with Hostin and Navarro, Jones actually criticized the “partisan media” for making Americans hate each other, plugging his new documentary with Meghan McCain called “The Reunited States,” in response to Joy Behar claiming there was “no outrage” from Republicans over Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene:
[Y]ou know, if you look at any of the partisan media, would you have believed that the worst thing in the country is we have awful people in the other party, whatever party that is, and you can't get anything done in the country until you deal with the awful people in the other party? I think the awful people are a problem. They're a small problem. The big problem is we have so many awesome people in both parties, all races, all parts of the country. Awesome people who just don't know what to do because there's so much noise and nonsense and food fight going on that the good people can't even be heard….
Apparently Jones’ message of tolerance and bipartisanship wasn’t made for the ears of certain View hosts. Sunny Hostin bluntly accused the very liberal CNNer of being a political opportunist who provided “racial cover” for Donald Trump:
Now Van, you do spend a lot of time, you know, threading the middle and trying to unite people but there are those who really accuse you of being a political opportunist, a chameleon so to speak, who provided racial cover for former disgraced, twice impeached President Trump. You said this, and I quote, ‘Donald Trump and I get beat up by liberals every time I say this, but I’m going to keep saying it, he has done good stuff for the black community. Opportunity zone stuff. Black college stuff. There's a side to Donald Trump that I think he does not get enough credit for.’ Yet just recently you cried on CNN when Joe Biden was elected the 46th president, and you said ‘it's easier to be a parent now. Character matters now. Truth matters.’ You even mentioned George Floyd and said ‘a lot of people felt they couldn't breathe.’ People in the black community don't trust you anymore. What is your response?
Jones explained he had worked with many administrations on social issues he felt were important to the black community, such as prison reform, and wasn’t going to apologize for that. Afterwards, the camera panned onto moderator Joy Behar who was looking down not paying attention. She bluntly admitted as such, “Oh! We’re back. You’re finished?”
Things didn’t get any less awkward after the commercial break, where Friday co-host Ana Navarro also went attack dog on her fellow CNNer for working with the Trump administration on prison reform:
You've lost a lot of people who trusted you and who saw you as a voice because of the positions you took during Trump, and in 2016, you and I were probably the two most vocal critics of Trump during the campaign on CNN to the point where it was reported that Jared Kushner went in and met with executives at our parent company and asked that you and I be fired, and then, you know, all of a sudden, you show up working with nepotism Barbie and nepotism Ken, and you work showing up, you know, in pictures with Eric Trump and Candace Owens….How did you go from being this very principled critic of the Trump administration as I was to all of a sudden, being in the White House celebrating with them and being, you know, and posing for pictures with Candace Owens? I mean, can you explain the evolution to people who are puzzled by it?
Defending his decision to work with any administration, Jones even pointed out that 95% of what he says about Trump on CNN is negative, and CNN wouldn't even keep him on the air if he wasn't criticizing Trump constantly:
I continue to critique Donald Trump. I mean, if you look at the coverage on CNN, I would critique him every single day. That would never go viral. Then when I would say anything to give him any credit, it would go viral. So we have a world now if you say -- 95% of what I said on CNN, I won't even be on CNN if I weren't doing my job as the Democratic critic of the Republican party...
The tense segment ended abruptly with Navarro continuing to berate Jones for taking pictures at the White House and Joy Behar cutting them off to tell Jones to "take a nap."
You can look at our Van Jones archive to see how he is no way a pro-Trump stooge or covert conservative. But Hostin and Navarro are part of the same media who've immediately spurned the lofty message that Democrats and progressives promised to "unite" Americans and "reach out to the other side" when Biden entered office.
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Read transcript exchanges below:
The View
2/5/2021
JOY BEHAR: So we have a congresswoman who has endorsed the execution of Nancy Pelosi, you know, and she said that jewish space lasers cause forest fires. Of course, and there's no outrage on that side of the aisle. How can we even consider unity when Republicans have been allowing someone like these loony tunes to stay in place?
JONES: Well, listen. I think that the media has gotten us believing something about the country that's just not true. We have, you know, if you look at any of the partisan media, would you have believed that the worst thing in the country is we have awful people in the other party, whatever party that is, and you can't get anything done in the country until you deal with the awful people in the other party? I think the awful people are a problem. They're a small problem. The big problem is we have so many awesome people in both parties, all races, all parts of the country. Awesome people who just don't know what to do because there's so much noise and nonsense and food fight going on that the good people can't even be heard….
(...)
SUNNY HOSTIN: Now Van, you do spend a lot of time, you know, threading the middle and trying to unite people but there are those who really accuse you of being a political opportunist, a chameleon so to speak, who provided racial cover for former disgraced, twice impeached President Trump. You said this, and I quote, ‘Donald Trump and I get beat up by liberals every time I say this, but I’m going to keep saying it, he has done good stuff for the black community. Opportunity zone stuff. Black college stuff. There's a side to Donald Trump that I think he does not get enough credit for.’ Yet just recently you cried on CNN when Joe Biden was elected the 46th president, and you said ‘it's easier to be a parent now. Character matters now. Truth matters.’ You even mentioned George Floyd and said ‘a lot of people felt they couldn't breathe.’ People in the black community don't trust you anymore. What is your response?
(...)
ANA NAVARRO: Van, look. You know, I lost a lot of Republican followers and people who trusted me in the Republican party because of the positions I took against Trump, and Sunny is right. You've lost a lot of people who trusted you and who saw you as a voice because of the positions you took during trump, and in 2016, you and I were probably the two most vocal critics of Trump during the campaign on CNN to the point where it was reported that Jared Kushner went in and met with executives at our parent company and asked that you and I be fired, and then, you know, all of a sudden, you show up working with nepotism Barbie and nepotism Ken, and you work showing up, you know, in pictures with Eric Trump and Candace Owens. I think there's people who wonder, and I'm one of them, how did that evolution happen? How did you go from being this very principled critic of the Trump administration as I was to all of a sudden, being in the White House celebrating with them and being, you know, and posing for pictures with Candace Owens? I mean, can you explain the evolution to people who are puzzled by it?
(...)
VAN JONES: [I ]am proud to have worked on the First Step Act which passed in a bipartisan landslide supported by people like Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi to get that done, and I was a person who was willing to go in there, and I will do it with every president to get people home from prison, and I continue to critique Donald Trump. I mean, if you look at the coverage on CNN, I would critique him every single day. That would never go viral. Then when I would say anything to give him any credit, it would go viral. So we have a world now if you say -- 95% of what I said on CNN, I won't even be on CNN if I weren't doing my job as the democratic critic of the Republican party, but when they do something right, I'm going to say it and then I'll get beat up for saying it and I don't get the 95% credit. But that's what we're trying to fix. Yes I worked with Republicans and Democrats and I give them credit when it's due.
(...)
