The View co-hosts clash with ‘political chameleon’ Van Jones: ‘People in the Black community don’t trust you’

'People in the Black community don’t trust you anymore,’ co-host Sunny Hostin said to Jones

During a visit to The View, Van Jones got into a heated argument with the show’s co-hosts including Sunny Hostin, who had harsh words for the CNN commentator, calling him a “political opportunist” and “chameleon”.

“Now Van, you do spend a lot of time threading the middle and trying to unite people,” Hostin began. “But there are those who accuse you of being a political opportunist – a chameleon, so to speak – who provided racial cover for former, disgraced, twice-impeached President Trump.

“Yet just recently you cried on CNN when Joe Biden was elected the 46th president, and you said it’s easier to be a parent now, character matters now, truth matters,” she continued. “You even mentioned George Floyd and said a lot of people felt they couldn’t breathe. People in the Black community don’t trust you anymore. What is your response?”

In response, Jones said his words had been taken out of context: “Well, I don’t think that’s true."

“People may not like everything I’ve said on television and I try to be balanced," Jones added. “But look at what I have done. Who among my critics have been able to get people together to help folks at the bottom? When we fight like this about everything and you can’t give anybody even a little bit of credit for anything, who it hurts is not the politicians, it’s not the pundits, it’s regular folks who don't have anything.

“I’m never going to apologise for putting the interest of people at the bottom first,” he added. “People need champions. Whoever is in that White House, you have a responsibility to go in there and advocate and try to get people home out of prison. I’m going to keep doing it, whoever is in that White House.”

Co-host Ana Navarro also chimed in, stating her agreement with Hostin. “Sunny is right,” she said. “You’ve lost a lot of people who trusted you and who saw you as a voice because of the positions you took during Trump.”

For example, when Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner wanted Jones fired from CNN during the 2016 campaign, “all of a sudden, you show up working with nepotism Barbie and nepotism Ken [Kushner and Ivanka Trump] and showing up in pictures with Eric Trump and Candace Owens,” Navarro said.

“So I think there are people who wonder, and I’m one of them, how did that evolution happen?” Navarro asked. “How did you go from being this very principled critic of the Trump administration, as I was, to all of a sudden, being in the White House celebrating with them?”

(Jones worked with the Trump administration to pass The First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice bill passed in December 2018. “Why?” he said in 2019 in an interview with The Daily Beast. “Because I don’t care about all this bulls**t. I’m just trying to get people out of prison.")

In response to Navarro, Jones repeated that he was “proud” of the work he did with the Trump administration and has no “regrets”.