CNN's Van Jones Compares Youngkin to a Despised Killer That Has Taken Out Thousands of Americans
It’s rare that an election in an odd-numbered year produces any kind of serious response from politicians and pundits, which is what made the left’s anaphylactic reaction to a handful of races on Tuesday both entertaining and infuriating.
In Virginia, a state that’s been trending blue for years and where a Republican last won statewide office in 2009, Republican Glenn Youngkin — a businessman and first-time political candidate — defeated establishment scion Terry McAuliffe, a former governor and head of the Democratic National Committee.
In a New Jersey gubernatorial race that was never expected to be close, incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy was still neck-and-neck with Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to Fox News.
Needless to say, there were plenty of meltdowns on left-bubble Twitter because of this state of affairs. And then there was Van Jones, who called Youngkin the “delta variant of Trumpism,” linking the now-governor-elect to a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
“The stakes are high,” Jones said in a widely circulated clip of CNN’s election coverage.
“When this election is over in Virginia, we will know — have we seen the emergence of the delta variant of Trumpism? The delta variant of Trumpism. In other words, Youngkin — same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places.”
Van Jones on CNN calls Glenn Youngkin the “delta variant of Trumpism.”
“Same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places.” pic.twitter.com/8dA9WfTCFC
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 2, 2021
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper then said Jones was “implying that Youngkin is more dangerous than the president — the former president.”
“More easy to spread,” Jones said. “Because if you look at what he’s doing, he is playing footsie with the worst of Trumpism. He’s putting himself forward as a champion of parents; this is a referendum on parents’ rights … but he’s using all the critical race theory head fakes and head nods which is a softer version of a very virulent, kind of anti-black posture.”
“This is a very big deal because if this is a pathway — if you can flirt with Trumpism, if you can flirt with Trump, and still win in the suburbs — that’s a new development for us.”
Jones would later kinda-not-really apologize.
“My point is that playing on racial fears by demagoguing CRT furthers dangerous aspects of Trumpism, just in friendlier form,” Jones tweeted. “Did not mean to imply that human beings are diseases.”
My point is that playing on racial fears by demagoguing CRT furthers dangerous aspects of Trumpism, just in friendlier form. Did not mean to imply that human beings are diseases. https://t.co/ohXwQSXYJW
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) November 3, 2021
Clearly.
Critical race theory emerged as a central issue in the Virginia gubernatorial race after parents challenged school curricula in Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
Opponents said lesson plans included elements of the controversial far-left school of thought that proposes that racism was one of the central motive factors — if not the central motive factor — behind the development of American and Western society.
Much of the left’s counterargument was that CRT wasn’t actually taught in schools. Thus, they claimed the use of the term was a dog whistle, part of what Jones called an “anti-black posture.”
Jones, mind you, is best known for a 2016 election night rant in which he called former President Donald Trump’s victory a “white-lash against a changing country.”
.@VanJones68 on #ElectionNight: “This was a whitelash against a changing country” https://t.co/DumWoBvixe pic.twitter.com/Kmt2eBJxci
— CNN (@CNN) November 9, 2016
Arguing over whether CRT is taught in Virginia’s schools ignores the salient point: Using the term isn’t dog-whistle racism one way or the other.
Even if the concept has become shorthand for liberal educators thinking they can solve our social ills in 15 minutes by emphasizing the perceived evils of white Americans to our children, opposition to it isn’t demagogy — it’s common sense.
When voters objected to McAuliffe saying “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” it wasn’t “white-lash.” Youngkin’s promise to protect parents’ right to shape what their children are taught in the schools their tax dollars fund isn’t stoking any racial resentment.
Jones is forced to invoke the coronavirus and the ill-defined, all-purpose Democratic bogeyman of “Trumpism” to smear Youngkin — who never once campaigned with Trump, it must be noted, and has little in common with the former president temperamentally.
This Twitter conservative may have put it best:
Youngkin is a more passionate Mitt Romney and a conservative.
This just proves that for media there’s no acceptable Republicans. So stop treating these people as anything but the Democrat operatives they are.
Stop being nice. https://t.co/V3MZnhlKGX
— RBe (@RBPundit) November 2, 2021
“Youngkin is a more passionate Mitt Romney and a conservative. This just proves that for media there’s no acceptable Republicans. So stop treating these people as anything but the Democrat operatives they are. Stop being nice.”
A good Republican for Jones is one who does what Democrats want, but maybe grumbles a bit when he does it. (Preferably, he loses races, too.)
When he puts up the slightest whiff of opposition to current Democratic orthodoxy, however, he becomes akin to a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Republicans should take note.
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