Former Obama adviser Van Jones said during a recent interview that President-elect Donald Trump was smarter than himself and all of his critics.
“Guys, can we cut it out? Donald Trump is not an idiot. Let me just be very clear. Donald Trump is smarter than me, you, and all of his critics. You know how I know? Because he has the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, the popular vote,” Jones said.
Jones was asked by former CNN reporter Chris Cilizza during an interview on his YouTube channel about Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
“He has a massive media ecosystem bigger than the mainstream built around him, and for him, and a religious fervor in a political movement around him. And his best buddy is the richest person in the history of the world, and the most relevant Kennedy is with him,” Jones added.
Van Jones, CEO of Reform Alliance, a newly formed organization to reform the U.S. criminal justice system, speaks during the Reform Alliance launch event in New York City, New York., U.S., January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar – RC1AD68F87D0 (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
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Jones said Trump was the most powerful person of our lifetimes and argued the Democratic Party looked like “idiots.”
“We’re the idiots,” he said. “We lost. So we have to go back in the locker room and we have to sit down and figure out how in the hell did we get beat, and when you look at it closely, it’s the arrogance, it’s the elitism, it’s not respecting people, it’s not listening to people.”
The ex-Obama adviser, who is also a CNN commentator, has spoken out repeatedly about the election loss for Democrats in recent weeks.
“There’s a reckoning inside the Democratic Party,” Jones said at the New York Times Dealbook Summit this month. “Kamala Harris promised us freedom… well, she delivered it to us, because now we’re free from having to run anything in Washington, D.C. That’s not what we were signing up for, it’s what we got.”
He then listed a series of high-profile figures who have been so alienated by Democratic Party politics that they have allied themselves with the MAGA movement.
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“RFK was a rebel inside of our party, he wanted to run against Joe Biden fair and square, the DNC wouldn’t let him, pushed him out. You can walk down the list. Don’t forget Elon Musk was an Andrew Yang Democrat four years ago, he’s out,” Jones said. “You can walk down the list. Joe Rogan was very favorable toward Michelle Obama, he was a Bernie guy, he’s out. So there’s something that’s happened in this party where the rebels in this party no longer feel like they have a place, and we’ve got to be able to talk about that stuff honestly.”
Jones also ultimately placed some blame on Biden.
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“I love Joe Biden. Joe Biden picked me out of the puppy pile and gave me a chance to work with you guys, I love him, he should have walked away and let other people in this party step up to the bat, he didn’t, and we paid the price,” he said.
Fox News Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
