Former Barack Obama adviser Van Jones issued a stark warning to the “political class” that was not able 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 harsh 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 panel members, which included Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller and former 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. “You guys shouldn’t be as happy as you are because, 2016, people voted for change because they were fed up and sick of it, gave Trump a chance; 2020, people voted for change because they were sick of Trump; 2024, they voted for change, they’re probably gonna vote for change a bunch more times because, this — something is off, man.”
“There’s something really going wrong for real everyday working folks in this country, and I’m not sure either party has an answer yet,” he said. “We know how to beat each other up when the other one is in power, but can we solve any of these problems?”
Jones, Miller and Conway debated the successes and failures of the presidential contest for both candidates alongside former House Speaker 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’ “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover; ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl; and Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the Bulwark.
The CNN commentator went on to blast his fellow members of the “political class” for not understanding how voters currently feel about the state of the nation.
“My perspective doesn’t come from the focus groups, it doesn’t come from sitting on CNN next to my beloved Anderson Cooper,” he explained. “I was on the ground supporting folks in Philadelphia trying to get folks to vote, I was trying to help Jewish voters get to the polls in the Philly suburbs, and I’m telling you, we are way off, the entire political class is way off.”
One mistake for the Democrats, Jones noted, was scoffing at Trump’s digital strategy that actually reached new audiences.
“First of all, digital is the new door-knocking. You’ve got to understand that,” he said. “We were laughing our butts off at Donald Trump for suspending his door-knocking campaign and letting [conservative activist] Charlie Kirk and [Tesla CEO] Elon [Musk] do a bunch of stuff online. We said, ‘These guys 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 their hand. They’re in a 24-hour digital surround sound that has nothing to do with CNN, has nothing to do with any of the stuff that we do,” he added.
Jones argued that Trump managed to understand the changing political landscape better than the Democrats.
“I’m telling you guys, the mainstream has become fringe and the fringe has become mainstream,” he declared. “There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we’re on cable news getting 1 or 2 million, and so there is a whole world out there.
“Kellyanne Conway, I hate to agree with her, but I do a lot of times — Donald Trump understood that and we didn’t. And it’s not just Democrats that don’t, the entire political class is way off, way off, way off.”
With Post wires
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