Some activists at The Daily Beast appear to have a problem with bipartisanship.
The website published a nearly 4,000-word piece on Sunday attempting to cancel CNN political commentator Van Jones for using his expertise and influence to initiate change under adverse circumstances.
As a longtime Washington insider and advocate for criminal justice reform leading multiple nonprofits dedicated to the issue, Jones allegedly helped craft policy within a Republican administration and also provided help guiding South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s recent bill on law enforcement in a GOP-controlled Senate. Meanwhile, others simply complained on television about the status quo and championed anarchic calls to “defund police.”
“CNN’s Van Jones Secretly Helped Craft the Weak Trump Police Reform He Praised On TV,” the The Daily Beast headline blasted as if Jones’ efforts to work within the confines of political reality were a scandal. In an era of unmatched polarization not seen since the Civil War, however, it just might be a scandal, as woke radicals seek to cancel anyone suspected of holding even the slightest dissent with the 21st-century cultural revolution in a Jacobian uprising.
The Beast reported that Jones worked extensively behind the scenes with White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on the latest executive order signed this month that seeks to ban police chokeholds and provide funding for de-escalation training. While Democrats and liberals such as Al Sharpton chided the measure as mere lip service to genuine reform, Jones defended the efforts on CNN as a step in the right direction.
“We are winning,” Jones said. “Donald Trump had no plan a month ago to work on this issue at all. The fact that we are now in the direction of moving forward I think is good.”
Jones also pointed to the fact that Trump received the support of law enforcement officers at the signing ceremony, backing the Obama White House never received on similar proposals.
“As hard as we worked in the Obama years, we never got law enforcement to come to the table and stay there,” Jones said. “The idea that law enforcement is standing behind Trump on stuff that we’ve been asking for decades, I think is progress.”
While Jones has been public about his role in steering the Trump administration to success on its landmark “First Step Act,” lobbying left-wing members of Congress to support the 2018 law, Jones denied Daily Beast reporting that he played a significant role in the recent executive order that he had lauded on cable news.
The article, Jones said Monday, “is based on false, sensational charges — apparently designed to get clicks, shares, and likes.”
“I haven’t even visited DC since before the pandemic started — let alone been inside the White House,” Jones asserted. “I have never been included in any meetings about police reform (not by phone, zoom, nada). I didn’t know what was in the EO until the day it was released.”
(1/5) This @TheDailyBeast article is based on false, sensational charges — apparently designed to get clicks, shares, and likes. I haven’t even visited DC since before the pandemic started — let alone been inside the White House.
cc: @NoahShachtman
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) June 29, 2020
(3/5) When I meet with folks at The White House, I say so during relevant coverage on-air — as I did all through 2018, when I worked on criminal justice reform.
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) June 29, 2020
(5/5) I will continue to openly work across the aisle to help those trapped in the justice system. We need more of that these days, not less.
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) June 29, 2020
Even if Jones had played a major role in writing the law, an optimist might find reason to celebrate. A left-wing senior adviser from the Obama administration working across party lines to find common ground with real solutions is a rare occurrence in the modern age, as polarization reaches new heights. The only perceived violation of ethics could possibly be failing to disclose Jones’ part in the process while putting him on air to provide critical analysis on national television.
Jones, however, made clear that not only was he absent from policy discussions related to the president’s latest order on law enforcement, he will remain transparent when he is meeting with White House officials.
“When I meet with folks in the White House, I say so during relevant coverage on-air — as I did all through 2018, when I worked on criminal justice reform,” Jones said.
