CNN commentator Van Jones was recently called to task by “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin for flip-flopping on his political views and giving former President Donald Trump a “racial cover”.
Jones appeared on The View on Feb. 5 to promote his pro-unity documentary, “The Reunited States,” which he co-produced with “The View” co-host Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain.
Hostin went in, addressing Jones by saying, “Now Van, you do spend a lot of time threading the middle and trying to unite people. But there are those who accuse you of being a political opportunist—a chameleon, so to speak—who provided racial cover for former, disgraced, twice impeached President Trump.”
Hostin repeated a pro-Trump statement made by Jones, who said that he gets “beat up by liberals every time I say this, but I’m going to keep saying” that Donald Trump “has done good stuff for the Black community” such as “opportunity zone stuff” and “Black college stuff,” The Root reported.
Hostin also said Jones’ actions were hypocritical, first praising Trump then crying in joy over Joe Biden’s presidential win. “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,” Hostin continued. “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?”
“Well, I don’t think that’s true,” replied Jones. “People may not like everything I’ve said on television and I try to be balanced, but look at what I have done. Who among my critics have been able to get people together to help folks at the bottom? When we fight like this about everything and you can’t give anybody even a little bit of credit for anything, who it hurts is not the politicians, it’s not the pundits, it’s regular folks who don’t have anything.”
“I’m never going to apologize for putting the interest of people at the bottom first,” Jones continued. “People need champions. Whoever is in that White House, you have a responsibility to go in there and advocate and try to get people home out of prison. I’m going to keep doing it, whoever is in that White House.”
Many on Twitter applauded Hostin’s roasting of Jones.
“This is the dragging Van Jones deserves and she legit left him stuttering in his response,” one user tweeted.
Others thought Hostin went too far, considering Jones’ community activism. One tweeter posted, “Literally fights to get people out of prison but y’all go ahead and hate him wtf have y’all done” referring to Jones’ criminal justice reform activities.
In 2019, hip-hop artist-activist Meek Mill, hip hop entrepreneur-investor Jay-Z, Michael Rubin, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and other sports, entertainment and business notables formed the justice reform initiative Reform Alliance. Jones came on board as CEO.
Still, “The View” co-host Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, agreed with Hostin and called out Jones.
“Sunny is right,” Navarro said. “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.”
Navarro pointed out that Jones worked with Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner for criminal reform even though Kushner wanted Jones fired during the 2016 campaign.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
Jones said he has “no regrets” and is “proud” of his work with the Trump administration.
McCain stepped in and defended Jones for his ability to work with both sides of the political spectrum in a bipartisan manner, Yahoo reported.
“I want to say you have been such a life raft to me, and given me so much hope to live in the spirit of how my dad taught me to,” McCain told Jones.
