CNN pundit Van Jones articulated how Democrats and the left lost the narrative, the election, and the pulse of the American people during a panel discussion hosted by The New York Times.
Speaking at the newspaper’s DealBook Summit this week, Jones said Democrats were off the mark when they dismissed the Trump campaign’s digital outreach program.
“In the Philly suburbs, and I’m telling you, we are way off. The entire political class is way off. First of all, digital is the new door knocking. You got to understand that. We were laughing our butts off at Donald Trump for suspending his door knocking campaign and letting Charlie Kirk and Elon do a bunch of stuff online.”
Van Jones: “The mainstream has become fringe and the fringe has become mainstream. There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams and we’re on cable news getting 1-2 million.”
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 12, 2024
“Donald Trump understood that and we didn’t.”
We are the media. pic.twitter.com/7dbH78JUfl
However, Van went on to note the 2024 election results were a sobering moment illustrating Dems weren’t properly taking America’s pulse, which was made clear to him by his son.
“I asked Mike, I got a teenage sign. I asked him, ‘Who are the most influential people in the world today?’ I’m thinking myself he’s going to say: Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z. He says Kai Cenat, Aiden Ross, Jynxie and Sketch,” Jones said.
“I don’t know who he’s talking about,” he admitted.
The CNN pundit went on to say he’s unfamiliar with video platforms like Twitch and Rumble.
“I said, what, what, what platform do you are? He goes, ‘I’m on Twitch, Kick and Rumble.’ I said, ‘That sounds like you need to go to the hospital. What are these platforms?”
Jones went on to say not understanding the new media landscape is what doomed the Democrat party’s election strategy and what catapulted Trump to victory.
There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we’re on cable news getting one to two million,” he said. “And so there is a whole world out there.”
“Kellyanne Conway,” Jones continued acknowledging a fellow panelist, “I hate to agree with her, but I do a lot of times Donald Trump understood that and we didn’t. And that’s not just Democrats that don’t —
The entire political class is way off, way off, way off.”
Jones comments illustrate how the mainstream media is barely coming around to realizing their political compass is majorly skewed and out of alignment with Americans’ interests.