A Donald Trump Super Tuesday victory parade meant that it was time to for CNN's Van Jones to go full apocalypse. On Wednesday, in the aftermath of Nikki Haley's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential primary race, anchor Jim Acosta asked Jones how Joe Biden could earn the votes from Haley supporters and donors. That provided the opportunity for Jones to conjure up images of "Russian tanks rolling through Europe" if Trump returns to the White House.
Here is Van Jones channeling his inner fearmonger:
JIM ACOSTA: And — and Van, what does President Biden need to do at this point to earn those Nikki Haley’s supporters, bring them into the fold? We saw the Biden campaign putting out a statement for President Biden, almost immediately after Nikki Haley walked off that stage in South Carolina. What do you think?
VAN JONES: I think he needs to — to talk to her donors and her supporters and say, if you want to a year from now, watch Russian tanks rolling through Europe, then, you know, endorse Donald Trump and get on that bandwagon. But understand, you’re going to wake up one morning and you’re going to see horror across Europe, you’re going to have American soldiers, sailors, having to go over there and do something that we could have done with dollars we have to do with — with blood.
If you want to continue to see the country being divided and unable to — to govern itself and treat itself well, get on that Trump train. But you got a place over here. Now, he also, I think, needs to make a stronger case for what he is going to do to keep the economy moving in a good direction for people who go in grocery stores and can’t pay for their groceries. He says he’s going to sic the DoJ and the FTC on these grocers, these corporate grocers that are ripping off Americans, he needs to lean into that for the voters. But for the people like us who care about a democracy around the world, they have a binary choice, we’re out of NATO and Russia is running over Europe, or you stand with Joe Biden.
If this sounds like a familiar refrain from Van Jones on the subject of Trump that could be because he went down this apocalyptic road before such as in October 2017 when Jones suggested that Trump was "willing" to have Americans die "to get his way." So don't be too surprised to hear of more Van Jones visions of Trump-inspired doom as we approach this year's election in November.
