CNN host and former advisor to President Barack Obama Van Jones questioned if Michigan Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed thought he was “smarter than Barack Obama” on foreign policy in fiery comments discussing the “dangerous” beliefs held by many progressive figures in the Democratic Party.
El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel and former CNN commentator, has been embroiled in political controversies regarding his stance toward Israel and his relationship with a famous left-wing livestreamer, Hasan Piker.
In late August, Jones appeared on the “Ask Haviv Anything” podcast, where he addressed how the long and historic alliance between Black and Jewish Americans has recently fractured. He went on to criticize El-Sayed over his stance on Israel, saying, “his positions on Israel and foreign policy are insane.”
“Look, some Democrats are going to say that we should condition military aid. That, you know, ‘Israel’s gone too far in Gaza and in the West Bank and in Lebanon. We’re going to put some conditions on you.’ I think that’s a defensible position if you’re a Democrat,” he said. “That’s not Abdul’s position.”
VAN JONES WARNS FAR-LEFT SOCIALIST AGENDA IS ‘REGRESSIVE’ THREAT TO DEMOCRATIC PARTY
“I can get why you would say, ‘No more aid, they got to pay their own way.’ That’s not Abdul’s position. Abdul’s position is a total and complete arms embargo against the state of Israel, including defensive weapons. That’s an insane position,” Jones continued. “That says, if Israel wants to pay for interceptors to stop a rocket coming from Iran or coming from Hezbollah or coming from Hamas, an interceptor, we should deny them the right to buy the interceptors to knock down rockets going at Israeli children, women, men, babies. That’s an insane position.”
Jones went on to question if El-Sayed believed he was wiser than Obama on U.S. policy toward Israel.
“And by the way, it offends me because that’s — you know, Barack Obama was a part of creating that Iron Dome. Barack Obama was a part of creating those interceptors. Barack Obama thought that the Israeli people were in such a tough neighborhood, they needed to be able to knock down rockets,” Jones recalled. “So you’re telling me you’re smarter than Barack Obama? You have better ideas about foreign policy than Barack Obama? And you want to de-plug and defund and take away Israel’s — half the world’s Jews’— ability to defend themselves? That’s an insane position.”
“The fact that people are having a hard time figuring out what to do about it, I find alarming,” he continued. “This is not acceptable.”
MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE CONFRONTED REPEATEDLY OVER ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST, DEFUNDING THE POLICE
Julian Epstein, a Democratic consultant and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, argued that El-Sayed has a long pattern of concerning positions and statements.
“Bless Van Jones’ heart, I agree with him,” Epstein said in comments to Fox News Digital. “To my mind, El Sayed is clearly aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda machine that gives a pass to the butchering of millions of Arabs by extremist Islamist overlords in the Middle East while slandering Israel with lies like a ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ to justify the exterminationist and racist ideology that has always driven this conflict.”
Theo Wold, former assistant attorney general and former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under President Donald Trump warned that El-Sayed is part of a generational phenomenon of migrant populations taking up radical positions as they gain political power.
“Abdul El-Sayed is not a one-off. He’s the avatar of the rising generation of Third World immigrants who were resettled in the United States over the last thirty years,” Wold said. “Visit a high school classroom in Anaheim or Queens, and you’re likely to encounter similar radical claptrap. El-Sayed’s foreign policy is more ‘global south’ than it is American. His messaging is so radically foreign to American ears because it’s just that: radical and foreign. And increasingly, that’s what the post-American, pro-Antifa Democrat Party has become, as well.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Jesse Arm, a Manhattan Institute vice president and pollster who was born in Michigan, said that Van Jones deserved credit “for drawing a clear and principled line” on the issue, arguing that Black Democrats are being sidelined by the radical wing of their party.
“Jones’s frustration reflects a larger struggle within the Democratic Party. Reasonable liberals like him — especially those rooted in the African American community —recognize that they are losing control of a party they helped build. As the Democratic coalition becomes Whiter, richer, and more ideologically extreme, the preferences of most Black voters are increasingly subordinated to those of the party’s new activist base,” he added further. “Fringe extremists like El-Sayed and his top campaign surrogate, the racist streamer Hasan Piker, are seeking to marginalize and silence those voters, replacing the politics of the Black church with the politics of the campus encampment. There’s a reason El-Sayed got crushed with African Americans in Michigan’s Democratic primary, losing three-quarters of the Black vote to his more mainstream opponent.”
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign about Van Jones’ statements and did not receive an immediate reply.
