.@VanJones68 says Trump’s approach to Russia “is baffling to anybody with a functioning brain stem” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/UDnOVji3Qc
— CNN (@CNN) December 18, 2016
Van Jones, the CNN commentator who rarely loses patience, now does so in response to Donald Trump’s friendly attitude towards Russia. During a panel on Jake Tapper’s State of the Union, Jones characterized Trump’s stance as “baffling to anybody with a functioning brain stem.”
Trump’s casual air on Russia continues after the FBI’s backing of the CIA report that concluded Russia hoped to sway the election for a Trump victory. Many prominent Republicans have freaked out about a foreign power interfering in the U.S. political process, but Trump has refused to believe Russia assisted his win. And on this panel, Jones lets his concerns be known:
“Yes, other presidents tried say nice things about the Russians and you know, warm things … [but] not in the face of an active attack on the country! Cyber war is real war. So you have an active attack on our country, and yet the President-elect cannot find it in himself to say this is wrong, and it needs to stop? Listen, he can respond personally to an attack. He can respond as a partisan to an attack, but he can’t respond as a patriot to an attack? This is an attack on our country.”
Jones calls upon Trump to condemn the hacking, which isn’t likely to happen since he appears to have conveniently forgotten that he encouraged Russia to do something with Hillary Clinton’s emails. But Jones hopes that, eventually, people will realize that Trump’s lies have done some damage before he’s even taken office. The Messy Truth host concluded, “Everybody sitting here, trying to pretend this is normal? It’s not normal and it’s dangerous.”