As Donald Trump surged to the presidency Tuesday night, a CNN panel discussed the unexpected results, with commentator and former Obama environmental adviser Van Jones giving the most poignant remarks regarding an event that many thought would never come to pass.
“People have talked about a miracle,” Jones said. “I’m hearing about a nightmare.”
“It’s hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bully.’ You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bigot.’ You tell your kids, ‘Do your homework and be prepared.’ And then you have this outcome, and you have people putting children to bed tonight, and they’re afraid of breakfast. They’re afraid of, ‘How do I explain this to my children?’ I have Muslim friends who are texting tonight saying, ‘Should I leave the country?’ I have families of immigrants that are terrified tonight.”
“This was many things. This was a rebellion against the elites,” Jones continued. “True. It was a complete reinvention of politics and polls, it’s true. But it was also something else,” he added. “We’ve talked about race, and we’ve talked about everything but race tonight. We’ve talked about income, we’ve talked about class, we’ve talked about region, we haven’t talked about race. This was a white-lash. This was a white-lash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president in part. And that’s the part where the pain comes.”
Jones called for Trump to address and reach out to voters who marginalized by his divisive rhetoric.
“Donald Trump has a responsibility tonight to come out and reassure people that he is going to be the president of all the people who he insulted and offended and brushed aside,” Jones said.
“When you say you want to take your country back, you got a lot of people who feel that we’re not represented well either. But we don’t want to feel that someone has been elected by throwing away some of us to appeal more deeply to others. This is a deeply painful moment tonight. I know it’s not just about race —there’s more going on than that — but race is here too, and we got to talk about it.”
Jones’ comments resonated strongly on social media, with many sharing their emotion brought about by his words.
Van Jones just made me cry.
— Mark Ronson (@MarkRonson) November 9, 2016
Wow. @VanJones68 is articulating a lot of American people's pain tonight so beautifully. @CNN #ElectionNight
— Rosie Perez (@rosieperezbklyn) November 9, 2016
@VanJones68 Thank you for reminding everyone on @CNN of the reality for us.
— Kristin Davis (@KristinDavis) November 9, 2016
Respect to @VanJones68 for being so articulate and passionate about what so many are feeling.
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) November 9, 2016
If you wanna cry watch Van Jones give the first cognizant minority understanding of the election on CNN tonight. He just made it real.
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) November 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/nickstevenson11/status/796229475910504448
You can watch the video at the top of this article.
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