This week Van Jones publicly scolded Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris for not wanting to attend an event where President Trump was set to receive an award. But comedian D.L. Hughley is pointing out all the reasons why he thinks that was a foul move on Jones’ part.
According to Mediaite, over the weekend, Harris confirmed she would be pulling out of the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College, explaining that given Trump’s track record of “racist behavior” she did not feel comfortable watching him get honored at an HBCU. She also took issue with the fact that only seven actual students from the school itself were even allowed to attend the event.
Harris later agreed to attend the forum after her boycott against the president led to the removal of the sponsor that was planning to give Trump the award. But in the interim before the matter was settled, Jones denounced Harris’ stance, saying that, “Running away from a conversation has never solved anything. Some people will abandon a microphone because they don’t like the person who touched it last. Others are smart enough to grab that microphone and make sure THEY get the last word.”
This week in response to the CNN commentator, Hughley dedicated a whole five minute segment of TV One’s The D.L. Hughley Show, to blasting both Trump and Jones over the controversy.
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The comedian and talk show host started off by noting the issue with only seven Benedict students being invited to attended Trump’s speech, saying, “Even when he gave a speech at an HBCU, he stuffed the ballot box. He made sure that there were 200 of his supporters there, and only seven of those students were allowed to be there.”
Then he pivoted to Jones, “almost anytime Van Jones is somewhere and you’re a Black person, you’d be wise to be on the other side of it.”
“Now I have no idea what has happened to this cat, I don’t know what he believes, but he maligned Kamala Harris for refusing to sit in a room and be used for a prop, like he seem [sic] to do so eloquently,” Hughley continued.
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He also believed it was absurd that Trump even gave the speech at an HBCU, “after he used the word lynching in talking about him being impeached,” noting that the president’s past demands that the exonerated Central Park Five be executed, and rolling back of Obama-era reforms, made him the last person who needed to be honored in front of Black people.
“So what he does is [use] Black people for optics, and Van Jones and people like him make it easy,” Hughley explained. “Trump is a matter of pretending to do something, and he’s always abetted by men like you, earnest-looking men who pretend like they have people’s best interests at heart and meanwhile, make us look worse and do worse, which you have done, Van! You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“You maligned her because she refused to do what you did,” he said as if speaking to Jones directly, “shine his shoes.”
Hughley then concluded his takedown by stating, “Donald Trump does magic tricks. He’s the magic. Guess who’s the trick?”