CNN’s Van Jones criticized Democrats this month for alienating prominent figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Elon Musk and Joe Rogan and turning them away from their party.
Kennedy, Musk and Rogan all endorsed President-elect Donald Trump in 2024 after previously backing Democratic candidates. Jones, at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Dec. 4, argued on video that these “rebels” now feel unwelcome in the Democratic Party. He urged Democrats to confront this issue openly.
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“I hope the party takes a chance to look at the fact that we pushed all our rebels out of this party. We had a rebellion in our party in 2016; it was called [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders. You had a rebellion in your party in 2016; it was called Donald Trump,” Jones said. “Your rebel won. Our rebel lost. And then since then, the rebels in our party have been pushed out. RFK was a rebel inside of our party. He wanted to run against [President] Joe Biden fair and square, the DNC wouldn’t let him — pushed him out.”
Kennedy announced in October 2023 that he would run for president as an independent after initially challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination.
“You can walk down the list. Don’t forget Elon Musk was a [former Democratic presidential candidate] Andrew Yang Democrat four years ago. He’s out. You can walk down a list. Joe Rogan was very favorable toward Michelle Obama. He was a Bernie guy. He’s out,” Jones said. “So there’s something that’s happened in this party where the rebels in this party no longer feel like they have a place, and we’ve got to be able to talk about that stuff honestly.”
Musk supported Yang’s candidacy in 2019 and said he voted for Biden in 2020. Rogan endorsed Sanders in 2020.
Political analyst Mark Halperin asserted Wednesday that the Democratic Party has “plenty of bullies.”
“You had the logical conclusion: well, maybe our very old, infirm president should get a primary challenge [in 2020],” Halperin said. “Well, why didn’t he, except from Dean Phillips? Because bullies — bullies who worked for Joe Biden — called people who got out of line and said, ‘Get back in line or you’ll have a price to pay.””_
“They arguably cost the Democrats the White House … By bullying people into silence, they allowed Joe Biden to keep the nomination up until it was too late, in the view of the vice president’s people, belatedly, to replace him and win,” he added.
Featured Image Credit: Neeta Lind
