During an appearance on CNN's New Day Thursday morning, Van Jones suggested that "if Barack Obama had done half of what Trump did last week, he wouldn't be impeached, he'd be in Guantanamo."
The New Day co-hosts had brought on Jones, a former Obama Administration official and host of CNN’s The Van Jones Show to discuss the controversy surrounding President Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged that the two had an illicit affair a decade ago and was paid $130,000 in “hush money” right before the election by Trump’s personal attorney.
When asked by co-host Alisyn Camerota if the “tawdry stuff” qualified as significant, Jones replied: “the fact that we’re asking if it’s significant is significant.” Camerota then decided to invoke Obama. According to Jones, “if Barack Obama had done just half of what Trump did last week, he wouldn’t have been impeached, he’d be in Guantanamo.”
The conversation then turned to Wednesday’s White House press briefing, where Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the President had won his case against Stormy Daniels in arbitration. Jones then referred to Sanders as a “spin master”: “She’s tap dancing on marbles all day. At same point, you’re going to slip.” Jones did not seem all that surprised by the Stormy Daniels controversy, saying “This is just bad behavior from a bad person who got elected to the Presidency of the United States possibly in a bad way with bad guys from Russia.”
Meanwhile, co-host Chris Cuomo said that President Trump’s “problems with the truth” will make it far less likely that he will comply with a subpoena and testify in front of a grand jury. Jones then opined: “he can’t get in an elevator and out of an elevator without saying 12 things that aren’t true. I mean, the guy, he would tell 20 lies before he got into the room.”
The media and the left desperately want the Stormy Daniels affair to snowball as part of their effort to remove Trump from office. Their past schemes of “Russia-Gate” and using the 25th Amendment have failed to bear any fruit, so they have latched onto the Stormy Daniels controversy as their last best hope to #Impeach45. While they enthusiastically cheered for President Clinton’s acquittal close to twenty years ago, the media will find themselves rooting for the opposite outcome in the event of a Trump impeachment.
CNN's New Day
03/08/18
08:47 AM
CHRIS CUOMO: The White House is caught in the storm named Daniels. It is a scandal. They have to deal with it. They are not handling it well. The President’s alleged affair with the porn star giving late night comics plenty of fodder. You wanted some. Here it is.
SETH MEYERS: Adult film star Stormy Daniels sued President Trump yesterday, alleging that their non-disclosure agreement is not valid because he never signed it. And that sound you just heard was Melania dumping out her desk drawer looking for the marriage certificate. Maybe he didn’t, maybe he didn’t, maybe he didn’t, maybe he didn’t, maybe he didn’t, maybe he didn’t.
JIMMY KIMMEL: This is a big deal because if Stormy wins this lawsuit, not only will she be able to talk, not only will she be able to tell everything, she will immediately be sworn in as President of the United States.
MEYERS: Law experts are saying that some of the language in adult film star Stormy Daniels’ non-disclosure agreement suggests that she may have some lurid photos that were taken during their sexual encounters. Said Trump, fake nudes.
STEPHEN COLBERT: But the bombshell news is that after Mr. Trump’s victory, Mr. Cohen complained to friends that he had yet to be reimbursed for the payment to Ms. Clifford. Well, Mr. Cohen, maybe now you’ll sympathize with Stormy Daniels, because Donald Trump has screwed you both.
CUOMO: All right.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Let’s bring in, on that note, let’s bring in Van Jones, shall we? Let’s get “the bottom line” from him. He is the host of The Van Jones Show here on CNN. So listen Van, this is tawdry stuff. Is it significant?
VAN JONES: The fact that it may not be as significant in itself, the fact that you can have this low level of a standard for the President of the United States, the person we used to call the leader of the free world. The fact that we have to ask the question, is it significant that maybe he paid off a porn star right before he was going to be elected President so the porn star wouldn’t tell the world that he was cheating on his wife right after his last son was born, is that significant? The fact that we’re asking if it’s significant is significant.
CAMEROTA: Isn’t it fun to play the what if Barack Obama did this game?
JONES: Well, listen, If Barack, I’ve said it many times. If Barack Obama had done just half of what Trump did last week, he wouldn’t have been impeached, he’d be in Guantanamo. They would have said, listen, something’s wrong with this guy, he’s no longer here, Biden’s the President, no, you saw it, nobody say anything, we’re moving on. If you, if you reverse position on 12 different issues, you lose half your staff, you can’t be President. There would have been no discussion. Obama would have literally just be disappeared. Biden would be President and we would never mention his name again. But we’re just rolling on along.
CUOMO: He was never a morality play, not even for people who make morality their cause, right? Even the evangelicals with all of their political history of what they find intolerant, whether it’s the, you know, the idea of giving him a mulligan or a thousand mulligans, or whatever, they’ve bought into not buying into him as a person. So then, you have to look at the next level of significance, which is lying is troubling for a Presidency. And on that level, Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday, saying this.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: The President has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. This case has already been won in arbitration, and anything beyond that, I would refer you to the President’s outside counsel.
STEVEN PORTNOY: You said that there’s arbitration that’s already been won? By whom and when?
SANDERS: By the President’s personal attorneys. And for details on that, I would refer you to them.
PORTNOY: But you’re aware of them, so what more can you share with us?
SANDERS: I can share that, that the arbitration was won in the President’s favor and I would refer you to the President’s outside counsel on any details beyond that.
CUOMO: Key distinction. The first part, she was reading from something. The second part, she was not. It is in the second part where she said something that is bad because the theory of the case, Van, is Michael Cohen did this, he did this because he cares deeply about the President, he did it with his own money. And saying that the President won the arbitration puts him in the dynamic as opposed to just a third party beneficiary of it. Fair point?
JONES: Fair point but, you know, even as talented a spin master as her, she’s tap dancing on marbles all day. At some point, you’re going to slip. The marbles are not coming from Sarah Huckabee. The marbles are coming from the Oval Office, from the President, from his conduct, from the fact that he has all these sleazy people around him trying to cover up for the sleazy stuff he does in a sleazy way. And so when you have that much sleaze, I mean, when literally one word, you know, Bill Clinton, well what’s the definition of is, he’s still getting beaten up for that 25 years later. This is just bad behavior from a bad person who got elected to the Presidency of the United States possibly in a bad way with bad guys from Russia. This is bad and she’s doing the best she can with bad.
CUOMO: But to your point, it makes it much less likely that we ever see him do what Bill Clinton did, which is comply with a subpoena and testify in front of a grand jury or anywhere. I don’t see how it happens when they have this kind of problems with the truth.
JONES: I mean, he can’t, he can’t get in an elevator and out of an elevator without saying 12 things that aren’t true. I mean, the guy, he would tell 20 lies before he got into the room. So I don’t understand, for me, it is so heartbreaking, part of the reason why I’m doing my show the way I’m doing it, is, you know, I’ve got this show called The Van Jones Show and we’re trying to have, you know, some meaningful conversations with people frankly outside of politics because those people don’t have to lie, they don’t have to spin, they don’t have to try to polish up all this stuff and they can speak a little bit more honestly, a little bit more truthfully.
