CNN commentator Van Jones — guesting on "State of the Union" on Sunday — channeled many on the left in denouncing "the Clinton days" of the Democratic Party, which he said were characterized by centrism and unabashed corporatism.
"You have to understand, I think, that the Clinton days are over," Jones told host Jake Tapper. "This idea that we’re gonna be this moderate party that's gonna move in this direction, that's gonna throw blacks under the bus for criminal justice reform or for prison expansion, that's gonna throw workers under the bus for NAFTA. Those days are over."
"You can't run and hide. You've got to be an authentic person from the beginning. You're going to be judged based on your authentic commitment to the actual base of this party. And if you don't do that, you can't win."
Jones said Hillary Clinton misread the room when she chose Tim Kaine as her running mate instead of someone from the "progressive wing" of the party, "which made it much harder to heal those wounds with the [Bernie] Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wing."
He said Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison — a frontrunner, alongside current Labor Secretary Tom Perez, in the race for chairman of the Democratic National Committee — "represents that wing very, very well."
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