Van Jones: Liberals Can Work With Trump to Make America Better
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2020
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
America is hopelessly divided. That's what we're told. Look no further than the Senate impeachment trial for evidence: If Republicans work with Democrats, Fox News and tribal partisans will expose them to Trumpian fury, or so the narrative goes. But how true is this dim view of America's future, really? On this week's episode, we feature a guest who has received backlash and back-slaps for trying to knit together disparate interests in a deeply partisan world: Van Jones. The CNN star worked in the Obama White House as the “Green Jobs Czar” and currently heads the Reform Alliance, which advocates for criminal justice reform. While Jones has repeatedly called out Trump for being a bigot and a bully, he caught major heat from fellow progressives when he publicly praised Trump and the Republican party for their work on the First Step Act, an important reform that ultimately led to around 7,000 people leaving prison. Late last year, our Washington DC bureau chief David Corn joined Van Jones onstage for a live event at George Washington University and asked him: When do you compromise? When do you cooperate? And what to do when you find yourself caught in brutal partisan crossfire?
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Mother Jones Podcast. |
| 0:02.0 | I'm Jamila King in New York. |
| 0:05.0 | On today's show, |
| 0:08.0 | on today's show, America is hopelessly devastatingly divided. That's what you always |
| 0:19.0 | here, right? There's zero possibility of reaching across the aisle of working together |
| 0:24.7 | of getting anything done in Trump's America. So is bipartisanship effectively dead? |
| 0:31.5 | Is there any progress we can ring out of the Trump administration? |
| 0:34.8 | Today we're talking to someone who's been fighting to find out. Van Jones. |
| 0:40.5 | There's a whole other value system on the right that is also offended by mass incarceration. |
| 0:47.0 | He's received backlash and backslaps for trying to knit interest together in this deeply partisan world. |
| 0:54.7 | Stick around. |
| 0:56.7 | Van Jones worked in the Obama White House as the Green Jobs are. |
| 1:04.0 | He's a commentator on CNN and has his own show called the Van Jones Show. |
| 1:09.5 | He's founded progressive groups like the Dream Corps, Green for All, and Color of Change. |
| 1:14.6 | He currently heads the Reform Alliance. |
| 1:17.4 | He's called out Trump for being a bigot and a bully. |
| 1:20.2 | And Donald Trump has a responsibility tonight to come out and reassure people that he is going to be the president of all the people who he insulted and offended and brushed aside. |
| 1:32.0 | Yeah. But Van Jones has worked with the Trump administration too, |
| 1:36.3 | helping pass an important piece of criminal justice reform the First Step Act. |
| 1:41.2 | Today bringing a rare moment of bipartisanship and a big victory for President Trump |
| 1:46.0 | as he signed the criminal justice reform bill. |
| 1:48.7 | The new law allows federal inmates to leave prison earlier with good behavior credits and it also eases guidelines on |
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