UPDATE: Van Jones hammers Jeffrey Lord: The KKK ‘left the Democratic Party and they joined your party’
On CNN's Super Tuesday election night coverage, Republican strategist S.E. Cupp noted that Trump's refusal to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and former Grand Wizard David Duke during a weekend interview was a "dog whistle" to "other-ize other candidates."
Lord called Cupp's attack "liberal speak."
"I hate to say this about the Republican establishment but their view of civil rights is to tip the black waiter five bucks at the country club," Lord opined. "This is why Donald Trump has the ability [to win] because he's not going to patronize people."
"Hold on," Jones politely interrupted, bringing a hush over the other pundits. "The things that Donald Trump has done -- and not just in this race -- are horribly offensive."
"S.E. is right," he continued. "He is whipping up and tapping into and pushing buttons that are very, very frightening to me and frightening to a lot of people."
Jones argued that when Trump was "playing funny with the Klan, that is not cool."
"I know this man, when he gets passionate about terrorism, I know how he talks about terrorism, the Klan is a terrorist organization," Jones explained.
"It's a leftist terrorist organization," Lord interjected.
"We're not going to play that game," Jones shot back. "No, you need to take a serious look at the fact that this man has been playing fast and loose and footsie. When he starts talking about terrorism, he gets passionate, he says, 'No, this is wrong.' But when you talk about the Klan, 'Oh, I don't know, I don't know.'"
The former White House staffer pointed out that Lord had compared the Klan to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama's one-time pastor.
"Rev. Wright never lynched anybody!" Jones insisted. "Rev. Wright never put anybody on a post and you guys play these word games, and it's wrong to do in America. It is wrong to do!"
Lord continued his attempt to label the KKK as "leftists," but it only made Jones angrier.
"Call them chipmunks!" he exclaimed. "They kill people. Don't play games with that!"
"I don't care how they voted 50 years ago, I care about who they killed," Jones added. "When you do not acknowledge that he did not answer that question [about disavowing the Klan] with the passion he answered with other terrorist organizations, you do yourself a disservice, you do your candidate a disservice."
"I know you, I trust you, tell Donald Trump for my children's sake, for the children's sake of America, if he's going to lead this country, he needs to be as passionate about what has happened to people in my community as anybody else's."
Watch the video below.
