Former Obama adviser Van Jones warned the political class that the strategies they believed would win over the American people were woefully outdated.
At the New York Times DealBook Summit, political figures offered their autopsies on why the Harris campaign failed and how the Trump campaign rode America’s changing media tide.
Jones argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory is just another example of the American people’s dissatisfaction with the governance of both political parties.
“I want to talk real,” he said as he addressed Republicans on the panel. “You guys shouldn’t be as happy as you are because, in 2016, people voted for change because they were fed up and sick of it, give Trump a chance. 2020, people voted for change because they were sick of Trump. In 2024 they voted for change, they’re probably going to vote for change many times over because, this — something’s wrong, man.”
He added further, “There is something really going wrong for the real everyday people who work in this country and I’m not sure either side has an answer yet. We know how to beat each other when the other is in power, but can we solve any of these problems?”
The CNN commentator argued that his hard-won expertise comes from real-world experience, something he says the political class is too disconnected from.
“My perspective doesn’t come from focus groups, it doesn’t come from being on CNN next to my boyfriend Anderson Cooper. I was on the ground supporting people in Philadelphia trying to get people to vote, I was trying to help Jewish voters get to the polls in the suburbs of Philly and I’m telling you, we’re a long way off, the whole political class it’s off road,” he warned.
Jones recalled that while many initially laughed at the Trump campaign’s unorthodox tactics to focus on Internet influencers, they’re not laughing anymore.
“First of all, digital is the new knocking door. You have to understand that,” he said. “We were laughing our butts off with Donald Trump for suspending his door-knocking campaign and letting Charlie Kirk and Elon do a bunch of stuff on the Internet. We said, ‘ These people are idiots! These guys are stupid!’”
“Then you start knocking on these doors… you know what people come to the door with? Their phone in hand. They’re on 24-hour digital surround sound that has nothing to do with CNN, nothing to do with any of the things we do,” he added.
Jones then recalled that his expectations were dashed when he asked his teenage son who the most influential people in the world are today.
He expected to hear former President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z, but found they were eclipsed by online video game broadcasters like Kai Cenat, Adin Ross, Jynxzi and Sketch on platforms he’d never heard of. like Twitch, Kik and Rumble.
The news commentator then argued that changing the rules of American politics is something Trump and his campaign learned long before the rest of the political class.
“I’m telling you guys, mainstream has become fringe and fringe has become mainstream,” Jones said. “There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we’re on cable news that are getting 1 or 2 million, and so there’s a whole world out there.
“Kellyanne Conway, I hate to agree with her, but I do a lot of times — Donald Trump got that and we didn’t. And it’s not just the Democrats who don’t, the entire political class is way, way, way away.”
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