Trump Goes On Minutes-Long Rant Against ‘Total Sleazebag’ Van Jones Over First Step Act: ‘A Real Man Wouldn’t Do That’

Screenshot via The PBD Podcast

Former President Donald Trump made it clear during on appearance on Patrick Bet-David’s podcast that he is no fan of CNN commentator Van Jones , calling him a “total sleazebag.”

During a discussion on his support among Black voters, Trump launched into a rant against Jones, recalling feeling slighted by the activist after they worked together in 2018 to pass the First Step Act , bipartisan legislation aimed at reducing recidivism in prison populations by easing mandatory minimum sentencing and bulking up programs in prison aimed at rehabilitation.

Trump recalled Jones coming to see as him at the White House as part of a group of activists arguing in favor of criminal justice reform. Trump claimed Jones was “crying” and required “handkerchiefs.”

“He came to see me in the White House and he was crying. He was crying because — I just, I bring these things up because it’s a lack of, I don’t know, there’s something about loyalty,” Trump said about the commentator.

The former president said he was receptive to helping and turning a number of “very conservative” senators around on their votes.

“He made a plea to me, Van Jones, total sleazebag, he made a plea to me to help him and help this group of people,” Trump recalled.

After the First Step Act actually was passed, Trump recalled telling his wife to join him to watch a news conference with Van Jones and others, expecting to hear some rare praise:

I said to my wife, “Come on over here, this is beautiful. This is a beautiful thing to watch. Watch this. This gentleman was in my office a number of weeks ago and he needed votes and I got it done. It’ll be nice to watch someone really say something nice about your husband.” I said that to Melania. I said, “watch this,” and they got up and they spoke, Van Jones got up and it was a little, I don’t get too embarrassed, you know, he got up, he thanked this one, he thanked that one, he thanked this one, this one, that one, that one. The only one he didn’t thank was Donald Trump.

Trump added Jones has a “bad way” as he described seeing the commentator’s criticism of him on CNN today.

“I look at that sleazebag now and I say, he’s got a bad way, bad way. I saw him last night and it was on CNN, which is dying by the way in the ratings because they have people like him on, and I watched him last night say how he hopes I’ll be defeated and ‘we should defeat him, we have to fight him, he shouldn’t be allowed to be’ and I said, you know, normally I’d say I wish I had that vote back but we did the right thing,” he said.

Bet-David did dig up a CNN clip where Jones at the time did offer credit to Trump, but the former president dismissed it, saying it wasn’t enough and calling Jones not a “real man.”

“I want to say Hakeem Jeffries on the left, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump on the right have brought together a coalition that I’ve never seen,” Jones said in the CNN clip.

“It was great to see Van Jones saying this about you,” Bet-David said.

It was, but again, right after that it was over,” Trump responded.

“He has to go back,” Bet-David said.

“A real man would not have done that, and I’m glad I saw that, but it really doesn’t mean anything because he said it and then after that he took it back,” Trump said.

Jones also defended his work with Trump in a more recent Politico interview.

“My view is: You’re not giving Trump a victory, you’re giving 200,000 people who were locked up in federal prison a victory,” he said. “And if the only way you can defeat Donald Trump is to make sure that for the next four, eight or more years, Black and brown people in federal prison stay miserable, we need a better strategy for defeating Donald Trump.”

Watch above via The PBD Podcast .