CNN’s Van Jones on Thursday urged Democrats not to blame Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump solely on “racism” and “sexism.”
Trump secured an election victory over Harris early on Wednesday, bolstered by increased support from Hispanic and black men. Jones, on “CNN News Central,” argued that bigotry contributed to Harris’ defeat, but said Democratic failures and the Trump campaign’s “innovation” were also significant factors.
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“I think that for Democrats, we have to take a breath here. It’s very easy to say it’s race, it’s gender. It is. There is that element, but there are other elements too. We did not build the kind of media communications infrastructure,” Jones said. “The same way that Trump caught us off guard by being on Twitter, when we didn’t understand Twitter, he did the same thing to us on podcasts. We keep falling behind the Trump innovation team. They’ve got engineers on their team, they’ve got entrepreneurs on their team. They think differently about politics.”
Trump had received nearly 73 million votes, or about 51% of the total, as of Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press.
“We’re too homogeneous in terms of having a bunch of lawyers, having a bunch of people in government trying to think this stuff through. We got beat. That’s what happened. Now, is there racism? Absolutely. Sexism — but if you focus on that, you miss the opportunity for innovation on our side and frankly for respect of the other side, what they achieved,” he added. “They beat us. You got to sit down, you got to eat your Wheaties, you got to learn and come back to deal with them in two years.”
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten noted on Wednesday that Trump is the only Republican presidential candidate that “has carried Latino men” since 1972. The president-elect also pulled 21% support from black male voters nationwide, which is up two points from his 2020 results, according to Reuters.
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God on Wednesday also asserted it is unfair to attribute Trump’s victory over Harris to bigotry, suggesting economic factors and safety played a more significant role in the outcome. However, Democratic strategist James Carville on Wednesday argued Harris’ loss was due to President Joe Biden’s “late” July departure from the race, the vice president’s failure to distinguish herself from him and “a sense of disorder.”
Trump also won 57% of the vote in Starr County in Texas, which was 97% Hispanic and voted for Democrats since 1896, according to the New York Post.
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