VAN JONES WARNS DEMOCRATS TO ‘WAKE UP’: TRUMP’S WOOING BLACK VOTERS [WATCH]
*Van Jones has weighed in on Trump’s State of the Union speech, calling it a warning shot because he’s going after the Black vote by making up false stats about Black employment and poverty and promising opportunities to Black children.
Jones also warned the Democratic party to wake up and get “clinical” and less emotional about a possible “split off” in that Black vote, per realclearpolitics.com.
“Warning to Democrats: what [Trump] was saying to African Americans can be effective,” Jones said following the State of the Union address. “You may not like it, but he mentioned HBCU’s [historically black colleges and universities], black colleges have been struggling for a long time, a bunch of them have gone under, he threw a lifeline to them in real life in his budget.”
Jones also noted that Trump’s criminal justice reform could woo Black voters away from the Democratic party.
“We’ve got to wake up, folks, there’s a whole bubble thing that goes on,” Jones continued. “We say, ‘well he said s-hole nations, therefore all black people are going to hate him forever.’ That ain’t necessarily so. I think what you’re going to see him do, you may not like my rhetoric, but look at my results and my record for black people. If he narrow casts that, it’s going to be effective.”
Jones previously spoke in support of Trump’s criminal justice reform efforts.
“The conservative movement in this country, unfortunately from my point of view, is now the leader on this issue of reform,” Jones said at the CPAC conference in February 2019.
Trump signed the First Step Act in December 2018, which the Washington Post described as “the most far-reaching overhaul of the criminal justice system in a generation.”
The Justice Department announced in July 2019 that more than 3,100 inmates had been released as a result of the initiative.
The Trump administration has also granted 18 pardons and six commutations, according to the Justice Department, statesman.com reports.
Hear more from Van Jones on the issue via the YouTube clip above.
