Former Obama advisor Van Jones stated that the Democratic Party was “screwed” and caught between two highly unpopular factions, as the CNN commentator couldn’t help but laugh at the “nightmare” the Democrats were facing when asked about the ongoing tensions within the party.
“Look, man, we’re screwed,” Jones said on “CNN Newsroom” Sunday. “I mean, Democrats don’t know what to do. This is a nightmare. You know, somebody like Donald Trump, we thought we’d at least have Hakeem Jeffries in the Speaker’s chair to hold him back if we didn‘t have Kamala in there to do the right thing.” Jones noted that the party is struggling between establishment and progressive members, lacking a clear path forward.
“Listen, the Democratic Party is going through a massive set of internal crises. You have a party that got trapped two ways,” he said. “One, defending a broken status quo that nobody likes because they thought that Donald Trump was going to make it worse. But when you’re defending the status quo, you’re going to lose.”
“And then offending most people in the country, calling everybody sexist and racist and transphobic and every other name, and then saying, ‘please follow us.’ That’s not a good strategy, folks. Defending a broken status quo and offending most of the country, turns out, is not as popular as my party thought it was going to be. And so it’s going to take a while for people to get it figured out,” Jones added.
The Democratic Party has faced significant challenges since Trump’s election in 2024. A Quinnipiac University survey conducted during Trump’s first week in office revealed that only 31% of respondents had a favorable view of the party. The party’s approval ratings remained low after Democratic Rep. Al Green sparked controversy by shouting and interrupting President Trump during his address to Congress on Tuesday. A CNN instant poll showed that 80% of respondents deemed Green’s behavior inappropriate.
Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine criticized the “embarrassing” trajectory of his party during an interview with Fox News on Friday. He expanded on his disapproval of Democratic lawmakers’ behavior during last week’s State of the Union address, describing their actions as “embarrassing.”
Green—who has repeatedly introduced unsuccessful articles of impeachment against Trump—was ultimately escorted from the chamber and later censured by his colleagues. Later in Trump’s speech, most Democratic lawmakers remained seated during an emotional moment honoring brain cancer survivor DJ Daniel, a young boy who was made an honorary member of the U.S. Secret Service. Turrentine called their reaction an “unforgivable embarrassment” and a stark indictment of his party’s current approach.
“I love my Party, but tonight was a new low. I get silence on this or that policy, and the raw politics of the base’s anger. But, for not a single D to stand to applaud a boy’s brave battle with cancer, or a man’s admission to West Point, was a classless disgrace,” the former strategist wrote in an X post a day after the speech. “And maddeningly, while overall Trump’s speech was politically good, there were political holes that could be exploited, juvenile taunts that voters hate, and comical lies. But much of that will be buried by our self-inflicted stupidity.”