Former President Donald Trump's failure to give a straight answer to Sean Hannity on whether he would govern as an autocrat at the Fox News town hall in Iowa was an astonishing moment, said analyst Van Jones on CNN Wednesday morning — and a failure of the simplest test for an American politician imaginable.
Widespread reporting has detailed claims that Trump and his allies plan to use a second term to reshape the government in his image, create a loyalty cult out of the civil service, and send the Justice Department after Trump's political enemies.
"He obfuscated, didn't give a yes or no for five minutes," said anchor Phil Mattingly, after playing a clip of Hannity pressing Trump on the issue during the televised interview Tuesday. "And when he finally did answer, the answer — dictator on day one. What do you hear there?"
"Well, I mean, in some ways it's kind of like the guy at Ellis Island, they say, do you advocate supporting overthrowing the government with force or violence? And he goes, violence," said Jones.
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"This is a very easy question, a simple yes or no question, and there was an opportunity to set the record straight, to tell people, I do not plan to do this, I plan to follow the law. He didn't do it.
"There's not a single human being on earth that would take more than five seconds to answer a question like that the right way, he couldn't get it right in five minutes," he said.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Van Jones reacts to Trump's inability to answer "dictator" questionwww.youtube.com
