On the Dec. 1 edition of ABC’s “The View,” CNN political commentator Van Jones minced no words as he doubled down on his “whitelash” comments in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s Nov. 8 victory, declaring that the media has attempted to normalize the president-elect’s ties to white nationalism.
Nearly a month ago, Jones said that Trump’s victory is credited to a white backlash in response to the election of President Barack Obama, the Black Lives Matter movement and alleged signs of racial progress.
But in the clip from Thursday’s broadcast, Jones put the blame on both parties for the current political upheaval.
“Both political parties right now, I think, have big problems, and they don’t want to discuss it,” he says. “The liberals, Democrats, we see ourselves as the champions of the poor and the downtrodden … but we have let elitist-sounding people come into the party.”
Jones implied that the Democratic party has lost touch with its original message of liberalism and that greatly contributed to Hillary Clinton’s “upset” loss in the election.
Jedediah Bila steered the conversation back to Jones’ “whitelash” comments, stating that a lot of whites did not agree with him. She insisted that the election of President Barack Obama is indicative of racial progress, but Jones strongly disagreed with that assessment.
“I think we have to start being true,” Jones says. “The majority of white people voted against Obama both times [in 2008 and 2012]. The majority of white people in California voted against Obama both times. We keep patting ourselves on the back saying we [white people] elected a Black president. [But] we [Black people] elected a Black president.”
“This is important to me because people keep saying we have to give him a chance,” Jones says. “And we do have to give him a chance. But we don’t have to give him a pass on everything.”
Near the end of the clip, Jones pointed out that the fact that Breitbart’s Steve Bannon advises Trump is proof that there is a whitelash.
“Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton, when she first got in — in the ’70s, there was a group called SCUM, Society for Cutting Up Men,” Jones reminds the panel. “If Hillary Clinton had put somebody in from SCUM, do you think Republicans would be saying ‘Oh, give her a chance.’?
“Bannon is from an organization that made space for white nationalists, white supremacists and was proud of it.”
