CNN commentator Van Jones on Tuesday lifted the smokescreen from Donald Trump’s repeated claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election, insisting the “most genius thing Trump has done” is distracting from the “terrible things” he’s doing.
During a discussion on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Jones called out conservative contributor Jeffrey Lord over the unsubstantiated claim that millions of illegal ballots handed the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, a statement Trump made originally in the days following the election and recently repeated to Congressional leaders.
“Jeffrey, I think your genius is worthy of a greater cause than this,” Jones told Lord. “This is ridiculous.”
Jones conceded in a system where 180 million can vote, “there will be some people who will do bad things,” but argued “three to five million people is bigger than some of our states.”
“It would be a massive number of people,” Jones said. “And you would have to believe some of the worst things possible … Trying to get people to vote when they are eligible to vote is almost impossible. The idea that there’s five million people out there who are not eligible to vote, that you could somehow get to vote.”
“Why not find out how many?” Lord interjected.
“Trump doesn’t want to, apparently,” Jones replied, referring to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s vague response over whether the Trump administration would consider opening an investigation into the president’s “belief” that millions voted illegally.
“It could be the case that this is most genius thing Trump has ever done,” Jones continued. “We are talking about this, and maybe he’s glad. Because all this wonderful things he’s done today are actually awful things from my point of view.”
“He’s doing terrible things,” Jones added. “He’s shoving pipelines down people’s throat, he’s gagging people—“
Watch the video below, via CNN:
