Political commentator Van Jones reportedly helped the White House write up the recent executive order on police reforms and then praised it on CNN’s airwaves without disclosing his involvement.
Jones, who was an environmental adviser for the Obama administration, attended “secret White House meetings with his new friend Jared Kushner,” according to a report published by the Daily Beast on Sunday.
“I find that in politics, people get in uncomfortable situations, and that’s when you get to see what a person’s character really is,” Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, told the outlet. “And in a tough situation, Van has shown me that he’s got true character. He’s focused on the right things.”
Trump signed the executive order on June 16, which contains guidelines for police departments to meet certain standards on the use of force, including chokeholds, if they want access to federal grants. It also creates a federal database of officers for police misconduct.
“The executive order is a good thing, mainly because you saw the support of law enforcement there,” Jones said on Inside Politics. “There is movement in the direction of a database for bad cops. We have never had a federal database for bad cops. That’s why all these cops go all over the place doing bad stuff. … The chokeholds, that’s common ground now between Nancy Pelosi and Trump. Good stuff there.”
Later that night, Jones appeared on another CNN program, where he again celebrated the executive order.
“I think it’s pushing in the right direction,” he told anchor Anderson Cooper. “What you got today is, I think, a sign that we are winning,” he added. “Donald Trump has put himself on record saying we need to reform the police department. … We are winning! Donald Trump had no plan a month ago to work on this issue at all. The fact that we are now in the direction of moving forward, I think, is good.”
Surrounded by representatives of law enforcement, Trump signed the order three weeks after the death of George Floyd, a black man whose death in Minneapolis police custody inspired widespread protests to enact police reform.
Critics, including Rev. Al Sharpton, derided the order as being too weak without a legal mandate.
Following the publication of this story, Jones tweeted out a rebuke of the Daily Beast report.
“This [Daily Beast] article is based on false, sensational charges — apparently designed to get clicks, shares, and likes. I haven’t even visited DC since before the pandemic started — let alone been inside the White House,” he wrote. “I have never been included in any meetings about police reform (not by phone, zoom, nada). I didn’t know what was in the EO until the day it was released.”
