Van Jones: El-Sayed Has A “Tremendous Opportunity” To Back Off His More Extreme Policies, Reassure Jewish Voters
Van Jones reacts to Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, projected winner of the Democratic primary. Jones, an El-Sayed critic, urged the Democratic Senate nominee to reassure Jewish voters by moderating his position.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Van, how are you seeing this tonight? VAN JONES: You know, I got a chance to talk to young voters on both sides of this in Michigan, and I learned so much. You know, Abdul, and we know him, he was at CNN for a while. If he wins tonight, it’s a first. We’ve never had a Muslim make it this far in the Democratic Party nominating process for a senator. So if you’re a young Muslim right now, you’re looking at these numbers. This is one of the biggest nights of your life to see something like this happening and what that means for you. But whenever you have a first, there’s hopes and there’s fears. I learned from the young voters who are, you know, for Haley Stevens. They’re afraid. They look at someone like Abdul, who’s calling for a total arms embargo, not just condition the aid, not just condition the military aid, but a total arms embargo. No defensive weapons, not even the Iron Dome is acceptable to him. They see that as a direct threat to Israel. And so there’s fear, I think, for some as they watch his rise. And then at the same time, I do think that the young voters who are excited about Abdul, they told me about an economic reality that they can’t handle. The price is too high. They feel like the morals of the country are wrong, that the lives of Palestinian babies are not valued. And they wanted somebody to stand up for their morals and their values. And so you’ve got a young generation here that’s really struggling economically. They’re struggling with moral questions. I think Abdul is probably going to win tonight. I think he has a tremendous opportunity to maybe back off of some of the more extreme policies. You want to condition aid, that’s one thing. But to say that Israel can’t even defend itself, can’t even buy weapons to defend itself from America, that’s too far. So I think he’s got an opportunity to readjust, reassure some of these young Jewish voters. But this is a big moment for young Arabs and young Muslims. And I think you got to give that moment to him tonight. It’s historic tonight in our party.
