Former Barack Obama adviser Van Jones issued a scathing warning to the “political class” that failed to capture voters as well as President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, arguing that their methods are drastically “off”.
Jones, 56, joined The New York Times’ DealBook Summit this month and offered his scathing assessment of how Vice President Kamala Harris managed to lose in a landslide to Trump on Nov. 5.
“I want to talk real,” he told members of the panel, which included Trump senior adviser Jason Miller and former 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. “You guys shouldn’t be as happy as you are because, in 2016, people voted for change because they were fed up and sick of it, it gave Trump a chance; 2020, people voted for change because they were sick of Trump; In 2024, they voted for change, they’re probably going to vote for change many more times because, this — something’s wrong, man.”
“There’s something really wrong with the real everyday people who work in this country, and I’m not sure either side has an answer yet,” he said. “We know how to beat each other when the other is in power, but can we solve any of these problems?
Jones, Miller and Conway debated the successes and failures of the presidential race for both candidates along with former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy; Anita Dunn, a former senior adviser to President Biden; Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson; CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett; PBS’s “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover; ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl; and Sarah Longwell, publisher of Bulwark.
The CNN commentator went on to attack members of his “political class” for not understanding how voters currently feel about the state of the nation.
“My perspective doesn’t come from focus groups, it doesn’t come from being on CNN next to my boyfriend Anderson Cooper,” he explained. “I was on the ground supporting people in Philadelphia trying to get people to vote, I was trying to help Jewish voters get to the polls in the suburbs of Philly, and I’m telling you, we’re a long way off, the whole the political class is far away.”
A mistake for Democrats, Jones noted, was mocking Trump’s digital strategy that actually reached new audiences.
“First of all, digital is the new door knocker. You have to understand that,” he said. “We were laughing our ass off with Donald Trump suspending his campaign to knock on doors and allow [conservative activist] Charlie Kirk and [Tesla CEO] Elon [Musk] do a bunch of things online. We said, ‘These people are idiots! These guys are stupid!’”
“Then you start knocking on these doors … you know what people come to the door with? Their phone in hand. They’re on 24-hour digital surround sound that has nothing to do with CNN, nothing to do with any of the things we do,” he added.
Jones argued that Trump came to understand the changing political landscape better than Democrats.
“I’m telling you guys, the mainstream has become the fringe and the fringe has become the mainstream,” he declared. “There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we’re on cable news that are getting 1 or 2 million, and so there’s a whole world out there.
“Kellyanne Conway, I hate to agree with her, but I do a lot of times — Donald Trump got that and we didn’t. And it’s not just the Democrats who don’t, the entire political class is way, way, way away.”
By postal wire
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