‘Couples Therapy’: CNN’s Lord, Jones Return for Part 2 of Fiery Debate, Goes Off the Rails Again

At some point during the heated exchange Wednesday morning between CNN commentators Van Jones and Jeffrey Lord on New Day, word must have been passed down from the network to keep the good times rolling well into the 9 a.m. ET hour. Despite the fact that at one point in the interview Alisyn Camerota noted that there were only 15 seconds of time remaining, the reprise of the Jones v. Lord spat continued for over 20 minutes, a satisfying second dish to the heated Super Tuesday fight that landed headlines everywhere.

On Tuesday night, the two CNN commentators blew up at one another over the recent debacle of Donald Trump’s KKK controversy, a situation in which the GOP frontrunner initially refused to totally disavow an endorsement from former Klan leader David Duke. “This is what liberals do! You’re dividing people by race!” said Lord, a fervent Trump supporter.

CNN welcomed both men back on-air Wednesday morning for what Camerota jokingly deemed “couples therapy,” as she and Chris Cuomo moderated the second part of the showdown, which we’ve provided here in two separate videos to show you in full:

The disagreement stems from Lord’s assertion that Trump, by and large, unequivocally disavowed the Duke endorsement at different times; Cuomo noted that the newest controversy comes from Trump’s refusal to do so, however, while live with Jake Tapper on CNN this weekend, and that the lack of message consistency is what has spurred so many questions. But Lord and Jones really got into it over the discussion of the roots of the KKK — “A leftist terrorist organization!” according to Lord — and its historical ties to the Democratic party.

“But we’ve had a reversal,” argued the liberal Jones. “There’s this weird strain now, on the right, that likes to pretend that their hands are completely clean when it comes to race.”

Jeffrey Lord continued with the historical argument, noting, “Your kids are being treated this way because of the conduct of your party for 200 years! The point is you have not stopped.”

“The Republican party was the party of liberation. The Democratic party was the party of liberty — more about property than people. That began to switch over the last century. Anybody with two eyes knows that!” Jones said in Wednesday’s exchange.

Camerota and Cuomo, to their credit, did their best to mitigate the exchange, carefully buoying the dialogue by presenting each point of view objectively to tee-up responses. Ultimately, they all agreed that the fight could rage on “for five hours” and not reach consensus.

“The reason that we can have this conversation is because I respect this guy,” Van Jones said of his colleague, despite the fireworks that proceeded. He also admitted, “I think the Trump voters have been disrespected,” to a degree.

Watch the extended all-out-brawl interview above from CNN in two parts.
[image via screengrab]
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J.D. Durkin is the Senior Editor of Mediaite. You can follow him on Twitter @jiveDurkey.