On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama Adviser Van Jones said that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t the only person who has changed, “Our whole party was on some weird pogo stick in 2020, we had all kind[s] of ideas that turned out to be bad ideas.”
Jones said that he would like it if Harris talked more about fracking and stated, “[T]hey spent four years, they did nothing to stop fracking, the idea she would stop it now is literally ludicrous. Why does she need it? Fracking has given us a geopolitical weapon against Putin. The reason that we’ve been able to hold the European coalition together is because when Putin said, if you back Ukraine, I’m going to cut gas off to Europe, I’m going to freeze Europeans in their beds. The United States said, no, you’re not. You know why? We are now the biggest exporter of natural gas in the world. We sent liquid natural gas to Ukraine. And where did it come from? It came from fracking in Pennsylvania. So, Pennsylvania fracking is key to our geopolitical strategy. So, if you ever want to have a conversation…for four years, she didn’t do anything against fracking, why? The entire Democratic Party shut up about fracking, why? Not for this election, but because that’s how we’re going to beat Putin.”
He added, “You guys get all upset about her changing her mind, when Donald Trump has flip-flopped on — even in the past couple of weeks — on abortion…Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) used to call Trump a Hitler, and he changed. So, here’s what happens in politics: People do change. Let me tell you, it’s not just Kamala Harris that’s moved. Our whole party was on some weird pogo stick in 2020, we had all kind[s] of ideas that turned out to be bad ideas.”
Later on, Jones talked about how he shifted his views on energy and said, “Early on in my career, we thought we were going to be able to get all the way to our clean energy goals with no fossil fuels, turned out that wasn’t true. Turned out, you’re actually going to have a more — have to have a more robust mix. The entire party came to that conclusion four years ago. So, people keep pointing back to ideas that I had and others had that turned out to be non-workable ideas. But, in practice, in California, and other places, the party has matured. It’s not just Kamala Harris.”
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