Appearing as a guest on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, far left CNN political commentator Van Jones made his latest venture into hyperbole as he claimed that congressional Republicans would be committing "treason" if they keep their promises to "obstruct" Hillary Clinton's agenda if she is elected President.
And, even though the federal government exists as three branches for the purpose of preventing "tyranny," Jones claimed that it would be "tyranny of the branch" if Senate Republicans blocked Clinton's Supreme Court nominees.
After recalling the day's revelations that the FBI will resume their investigation of Clinton's State Department email correspondence to see if it contains classified information, host Bill Maher worried: "Even before this, the Republicans were saying that they're going to obstruct her, investigate her. I mean, I picture them doing it right away, like Inauguration Day. Like, she'll be testifying in a ball gown. That's their wish."
Jones attached the word "treason" to Republicans as he responded:
You know, listen, they have forgotten the difference between being a party of opposition and a party of obstruction. There's great honor in being a party of opposition, you know, saying, "Listen, we think your ideas are wrong. We can make them better." But when you just stop the entire government from functioning, there's a word for that: treason. That's the word. That's treason. You have to do your job. You have to do your job. You take an oath. Period.
Maher then brought up the possibility of Supreme Court nominees being blocked as he followed up:
Well, I mean, and that gets us to the Supreme Court. I mean, they took an oath to at least give a hearing on the Supreme Court justice. And now I heard John McCain -- John McCain, who was supposed to be one of the reasonable ones -- this week say whoever Hillary puts up, they're going to block it. And I guess they're okay with, I mean, the Supreme Court is supposed to be nine. Now it's eight. We could get down to -- when they start dying -- it could be four. It looks like they're never going to even allow a hearing on anybody. This is insane.
Jones then forwarded his twisted definition of "tyranny" as he whined:
I think they've -- listen, I've, honestly, at a certain point, the Democrats just have to say, "Listen, guess what," especially as we get to the Senate, "Guess what, if you guys don't want to show up and do your jobs, we'll do it for you. We're going to suspend all those rules. We are going to let the Supreme Court function." You can't have one branch of government stop two.
That's called a tyranny of a branch. The reality is, the President of the United States is supposed to appoint, those justices are supposed to serve, and if you're giving advice and consent, listen, you can waive that if you want to, but we're going to go forward.
