Thursday on ABC’s “The View,” former Obama administration green jobs czar and CNN contributor Van Jones said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost to President-elect Donald Trump because Democrats’ “arrogance and elitism,” caused them to ignore the suffering in the rust belt states.
Partial transcript as follows:
JONES: There’s more going on than the media has gotten to. There’s heartbreak all around and we got to start listening to each other.
GOLDBERG: But here’s my question. Now that we are starting to see the plans and the people Donald’s putting in, how is this going to affect them? Because you know, all of the things that these families have put their hopes and dreams on him —
JONES: Listen, tell you what, they’re going to be patient with Donald Trump because they’ve been waiting for a long time. And I’m going to tell you something as a liberal, when those factories started closing, did the NAACP come help? Did Green Peace? Did the National Organization for Woman, did any liberal group come? We as liberals can’t be mad. We didn’t ask them for a date. We didn’t try to say come with me to dinner. So then Donald Trump shows up and takes them out and now we’re mad.
BEHAR: How do you account for the fact that she has 2.5 million more popular votes than he then?
JONES: It was the weakness in the rust belt. That’s where she lost it. I was saying back in June—those so-called blue states are hanging by a thread and nobody went there to fix it.
BEHAR: They didn’t agree. They didn’t see it. When I interviewed Nancy Pelosi, I said what if he wins, she said ‘he’s not going to win.’
JONES: Arrogance and elitism, and I love Nancy Pelosi.
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