Van Jones speaks on stage during the 2024 Bezos Courage and Civility Awards on March 14, 2024, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
At this point, I’m not sure why Van Jones doesn’t just go ahead and join the Republican party. The political analyst (I guess that’s what he is) is already basically a Diet Byron Donalds who always seems to be one loud, wrong, ridiculous and a single MAGA Black-ish remark away from becoming Candace Owens‘ Sunken Place roommate. Worse he straddles the line between progressive and conservative like he has the seat of his pants perpetually caught on the fence.
While most Democrats and progressives appear to be pretty excited over Vice President Kamala Harris choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential race, Jones has a different take on it—one that almost perfectly matches one of the many far-fetched and desperate arguments Republicans have reached for to attack the 60-year-old.
Jones thinks Harris chose Walz not for his commitment to feed children, his support of women’s rights including codifying in state law the right to have an abortion. It couldn’t be because he’s an excellent counter to Vance who pretends to be pro-Rust Belt “regular working Americans.” Nope.
Jones said Harris picked the respected former Congressman and current Minnesota governor who also chairs the National Democratic Governor’s Association to appease the (unidentified) anti-semites in the Democratic party.
From deeper in the sunken place
That’s right, Jones believes that Harris picked Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro because Shapiro is Jewish and that Harris chose Walz to appease “anti-Jewish bigots” and the “darker parts” of the Democratic Party.
“You can be for the Palestinians without being an anti-Jewish bigot, but there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there. And there has to be conversations about how much of what just happened is caving into some of these darker parts in the party,” Jones said during a CNN interview Tuesday, shortly after Harris announced Walz as her VP pick.
Who, Van Jones? Who are you talking about and where’s your evidence?
See, this is the kind of reach members of the GOP make when they’re trying to play identity politics while pretending they don’t play identity politics. Think about it: racist Republicans have been calling Harris a “DEI hire” based largely on the fact that President Joe Biden had pledged to choose a Black woman as his running mate for the 2020 election. Now, Jones is sort of reversing that concept by implying Harris is an antisemite appealing to antisemites just because she failed to choose a Jewish person to join her on the Democratic ticket.
Incidentally, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the same argument on Fox News:
“But I think Kamala Harris not choosing Josh Shapiro does prove President Trump’s point that the Democrat Party unfortunately has become the party of Antisemitism,” Leavitt said. “They’ve become the party of catering to the far-left demands of Hamas sympathizers in this country And that’s probably why she didn’t choose Josh Shapiro But again, you’re gonna have to ask her that if she ever sits down for an interview.”
Again, choose a Black woman and she’s a “DEI hire.” But if a Black woman fails to choose a white Jewish man, she must be antisemitic.
Of course, Jones, Leavitt and whomever other logic-less loon decides to adopt this narrative are going to have a difficult time squaring it with the fact that many prominent Jewish people have been praising Walz and Harris for choosing him. The Jewish Chronicle has largely praised the decision as Walz has long been a supporter of Israel, but he has also been vocal about condemning the violence in Gaza. Yinam Cohen, Israel’s Consul General to the Midwest, also praised Walz and thanked him for “standing with Israel during our darkest hour.”
Take the leap, Van! The GOP will catch you!
Of course, it should surprise zero people that Jones is, once again, finding common ground with far-right conservatives who have been flailing in their efforts to find a non-bigoted way to attack Harris, and are now reaching for any scrap of legitimate criticism they can find to level against Walz.
Remember when Jones stood before a largely white audience and tried to apologize to the Jewish community on behalf of Black people, implying that Black people were largely silent on Kanye West’s antisemitism?
So, yeah—just go ahead and join the GOP, Van. You’d fit right in.
