Van Jones torches GOP for trying 'to burn Susan Rice at the stake' while Trump team 'played footsie' with Russia

CNN’s Van Jones on Wednesday unloaded on Donald Trump’s assertion that former President Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor is guilty of a crime.

Trump made the comment in a New York Times interview, when asked directly whether he thought Susan Rice committed a crime when she requesting the unmasking of people who may have been related to the Trump transition team.

“Do I think? Yes I think,” Trump said in that interview.

During CNN’s “The Messy Truth,” Jones went off on the president’s claim he “thinks” Rice committed a crime.

“With his usual zero facts and no evidence, President Trump today declared that Susan Rice is guilty of a crime,” Jones began. “What crime? didn't say.”

"Let me say a couple words about Susan Rice,” he continued. “The right wing media wants to burn Susan Rice at the stake for doing her job, that’s it. Susan Rice was our National Security Advisor. To give good advice, you gotta ask good questions.”

The CNN host compared Rice’s routine unmasking with FBI Director James Comey’s pivotal decision last October to reveal that the bureau was looking into new information pertaining former Trump rival Hillary Clinton.

“If she were a terrible person, up to no good, trying to ruin Donald Trump, you know what she would have done, what she could have done?” Come asked. “She could have called a press conference in the middle of the election, like James Comey did from the FBI. She could have run around screaming bloody murder, ‘Look what I found, look what I found!’”

Jones argued Rice deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, because “somebody like Comey would have created a firestorm and possibly wrecked his campaign.”

“Republicans should love Susan Rice,” Jones said. “They should thank Susan Rice … Instead, they're throwing fits. Why? Maybe they don't want you to think about what Susan Rice unmasked.”

“People on Trump's team possibly playing footsie with bad guys from Russia,” Jones said. “Let’s not get distracted.”

The CNN host then tore into Trump’s use of son-in-law Jared Kushner to solve the world’s problems.

“[Kushner] has zero qualifications for his job, except that he married Ivanka,” Jones said. “Nobody even knows what his job is. … If Republicans are concerned about the proper function of our government, they should call hearings on Jared and his role, and point to Susan Rice as an example of how to follow protocol.”

Watch the video below, via CNN: