On Tuesday, CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta brought on political analyst Van Jones, who had a lot of praise to give Vice President Kamala Harris following President Joe Biden’s endorsement of her campaign. Jones described Kamala as a “winner,” a “heartbeat of hope,” and claimed she’s had the best 48 hours in American political history.
Acosta began the segment by asking Jones if he thought Donald Trump would “be able to siphon off enough black men to perhaps make a difference” in the upcoming presidential race.
Jones listed several “African American women who are the pillars of the Democratic Party” and stated:
They touch people, they counsel people, they help people, and they orchestrated and engineered this outcome, not because Kamala is a black woman, but because they could not see the Democratic Party in disarray and they want to make sure that if there's going to be a loose ball, it landed in the most capable hands.
Jones tried to explain that Kamala would be successful as president because she is “someone who's won as district attorney, someone who's won as attorney general, someone who's won as senator, someone who's won as vice president. A winner who has delivered over and over again.”
Harris won her race for attorney general in deep blue California by less than one point.
Yet, Jones continued, “But then what happened was, nobody necessarily predicted, was we spent three weeks sitting outside the ICU with a death watch for democracy. Watching what would happen after that debate if Donald Trump were able to get back in the White House and it was terrifying.”
Portraying Harris as a savior, Jones exclaimed, “Then suddenly a crack open of hope. One little heartbeat of hope. Kamala Harris raising her hand and saying, ‘I'll take care of this’ and you saw an explosion of support and energy.”
Jones declared that “young people have taken over TikTok for Kamala Harris” and have made it a “Kamala mania.” He made one last push for Harris as he concluded:
This will go down in history as the most successful political effort over a 48-hour period in the history of the United States. There has never been -- there has never been an effort that secured the nomination this quickly, money this quickly, enthusiasm this quickly, it took over pop culture this quickly, and we are on day two of Kamala Harris.
Harris also dropped out of the 2020 Primary before Iowa, so perhaps Jones should take it easy.
Click "Expand" to view the transcript:
CNN Newsroom
7/23/2024
10:04:25
2 minutes 28 seconds
JIM ACOSTA: Yeah and Van, I do want to ask you about this call and the importance of it as well, because I mean, one of the things that a lot of us were talking about before the big shakeup at the top of the Democratic ticket was whether or not Donald Trump was going to be able to siphon off enough black men to perhaps make a difference in that race had it been Joe Biden versus Donald Trump. Has that changed now? How do you make the case that that should change?
VAN JONES: Well, I think it's changing and I think that a couple of things are likely to happen. First of all, you know, when you talk about a Donna Brazile, a Karen Finney, a Jotaka Eaddy. These are African American women who are the pillars of the Democratic Party. They do the hard work that nobody sees. They touch people, they counsel people, they help people, and they orchestrated and engineered this outcome, not because Kamala is a black woman, but because they could not see the Democratic Party in disarray and they want to make sure that if there's going to be a loose ball it landed in the most capable hands.
Someone who's won as district attorney, someone who's won as attorney general, someone who's won as senator, someone who's won as vice president, a winner who has delivered over and over again. So they engineered the football getting into the right hands and that was the first step. But then what happened was nobody necessarily predicted, was we spent three weeks sitting outside the ICU with a death watch for democracy watching what would happen after that debate if Donald Trump were able to get back in the White House and it was terrifying.
It was 2025. It was this horrible speech that he gave. And then suddenly a crack open of hope. One little heartbeat of hope. Kamala Harris raising her hand and saying I'll take care of this and you saw an explosion of support and energy.
You know black folks are getting a lot of credit of course, but you have young people who have taken over TikTok for Kamala Harris. You have KamalaMania on Tiktok. You have suburban women who are breathing a sigh of relief. You have a whole – and you have black men taking a different look at the Democratic Party.
