Of all the members of the professional Democrat pundit class who are having second thoughts about a second term for Joe Biden after the June 27 debate, few have been more vocal than CNN pundit Van Jones.
If you will recall, in the hours after the debate, Jones — a former Obama administration staffer who’s been a longtime CNN analyst — looked as if he’d seen a ghost or just been informed of the death of a loved one. And, in a way, he was: He saw a ghost on stage in Atlanta, an apparition which signified the death of the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket as we knew it.
“I just want to speak from my heart. I love [President Joe Biden]. That’s a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing the best that he can. But he had a test to meet tonight to restore the confidence of the country and of the base and he failed to do that,” a visibly stunned Jones said during a panel discussion.
“And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward, if he will allow us to do that.”
CNN’s Van Jones: “I love Joe Biden. I work for Joe Biden. He did not do well at all. It’s not just panic. It’s pain what we saw tonight” pic.twitter.com/NuUIBKDJtW
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 28, 2024
If Jones has indeed recovered from the shock of finding out that Joe Biden is exactly who everyone else who wasn’t a liberal pundit and had seen Biden in the last five years thought he was, it wasn’t in evidence on Wednesday, when he pointed out the obvious: former President Donald Trump was continuing his campaign apace despite a bullet wound, but President Biden was sidelined by COVID.
According to Reuters, Biden was diagnosed with the virus on Wednesday as he was visiting Las Vegas. He’ll be self-isolating in Delaware after the diagnosis.
“He is vaccinated and boosted and experiencing mild symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Should Biden leave the race?
“As he boarded Air Force One to depart Las Vegas to recuperate in Delaware, Biden told reporters: ‘Good, I feel good.’ But he climbed the stairs slowly, holding the railing tightly and pausing a few steps in and again towards the top,” the wire service reported.
“It was unclear how long the sickness would keep him for the campaign trail.”
It goes without saying that this comes at the worst possible time for the current president, since his own party is slowly gathering the forces for a coup to replace him atop the ticket. The most recent — and highest-profile — official defection urging Biden to step aside is Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who will likely become the state’s next senator after this November’s election and has close ties with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, among others.
Now, COVID is serious stuff, especially for the elderly, etc. etc., blah blah, mask up and maintain six feet of distance. However, as Jones — visibly stunned as ever — pointed out on CNN Wednesday, this plus the events of Saturday drew a sharp line between the two major party candidates.
CNN’s VAN JONES: “A bullet couldn’t stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden.” pic.twitter.com/cYMn0hNFnc
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 18, 2024
“There are a lot of people who want Biden to stay in,” Jones said, as per Mediaite. “I want to just keep pointing out, there is still a grassroots love for Joe Biden.
“But today is a terrible day. If you pull back and look at this thing – strength versus weakness – a bullet couldn’t stop Trump, a virus just stopped Biden.
“You’ve got the nominees of this party getting their butts kissed. Biden’s getting his butt kicked by his own party. The Democrats are coming apart. The Republicans are coming together, that’s what’s happened. And at some point, this party has to look at the reality of that.”
And it’s not just that, or the defections. Biden — who made a big deal about Trump using the word “bloodbath” metaphorically in a speech about the auto industry, indicating he was stoking violence — was forced to apologize after he said during a donor call that he planned to put Trump in a “bulls-eye.”
Not that this actually precipitated the assassination attempt on Trump — from all appearances, the attempted assassin was, like most of his ilk, an ill-adjusted man with very serious issues — but goose, gander, etc.
And, by the way, Jones isn’t acting here in order to pile some more pressure on Biden. Anyone who’s remotely familiar with Jones knows that whatever comes out of his mouth in whatever tone it comes out is how it was initially processed in his brain; there’s no filter there, which is why he’s both reliably entertaining and illuminating while still being disagreeable, politically.
Voters notice these things. They notice that Trump, wounded by a bullet, shows up to the Republican National Convention two days later. Biden, in what arguably might be the most important week in his bid to save his bid for a second term, has entered self-isolation and will likely be incommunicado for that entire period. No return of the basement campaign, in other words.
Van Jones and the Democrats are nervous, and they should be.
