'The View': Van Jones Called out for Past Donald Trump Comments

On Friday, CNN's Van Jones appeared on The View to talk about his new documentary with Meghan McCain titled The Reunited States. However, things soon went awry when he was asked about his past comments on President Donald Trump, as Too Fab noted. In particular, Sunny Hostin tasked Jones with addressing his comments on Trump's presidency, including the fact that he previously said that the former president did "good stuff for the Black community."

The Reunited States is aimed to highlight "the unsung heroes working to bridge the political and racial divides in the U.S." Before long, the hosts asked the CNN commentator about his differing stances on Trump over the years. Joy Behar said that Jones "might be a cock-eyed optimist" for trying to bridge those gaps. But, Jones said that the "media" is spending too much time focusing on "awful people" in both the Democratic and Republican parties instead of highlighting the "awesome people." He added, "Can we give the good people a little bit of love and attention? I think the awesome people way outnumber the awful people."

Hostin then offered up her own perspective on the situation, telling Jones that he does "spend a lot of time threading the middle and trying to unite people." She also asked him about those who "accuse you of being a political opportunist — a chameleon, so to speak — who provided racial cover for former, disgraced, twice impeached President Trump." She then proceeded to read a quote from Jones that read that Trump has done "good stuff for the Black community" and that there was a side to him that "does not get enough credit for." The View host pointed out that his message contradicted what he said when Joe Biden won the presidency in November, as he said at the time, "it's easier being a parent now, character matters." Hostin then asked, "People in the Black community don't trust you anymore. What is your response?"

"I don't think that that's true," Jones began, saying that his words were taken out of context. "The entire quote I said was that Trump has done a lot of good stuff he doesn't get credit for, and then I said the reason he doesn't get credit for it is because he's done all this horrific stuff, said all this horrific stuff and it completely erases what he's done." He went on to say that he's worked with politicians on both sides of the aisle in the past and that he will continue to do so in order to help people. Jones added, "At a certain point, we gotta stop focusing on rhetoric and focus on results. People may not like everything I've said on television, I try to be balanced, but look at what I have done. Who among my critics have been able to get people together to help folks at the bottom? When we fight like this about everything and you can't give anybody even a little bit of credit for anything, who hurts is not the politicians, it's not the pundits, it's regular folks who don't have anything."