‘Van, Shut the F Up Forever’: Charlamagne Torches CNN’s Van Jones for Calling Mamdani Victory Speech ‘Divisive’
Charlamagne Tha God blasted CNN political commentator Van Jones and told him to “shut the f up forever” after Jones called Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral victory speech “divisive.”
On Wednesday’s The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne crowned Jones the “donkey of the day” over his Mamdani take. Mamdani came out victorious on Tuesday night — one of a number of big wins for Democrats — against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
The radio host, who also took part in CNN’s election night coverage, played a portion of Mamdani’s speech where the self-described Democratic socialist spoke about working with police officers to combat crime and homelessness. He also took a shot a President Donald Trump.
“Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down. Or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours too,” Mamdani said.
Charlamagne praised the speech:
How is any of that divisive? I personally loved that he covered all bases. He talked about working with police. He talked, you know, helping people with mental health issues. He talked helping the homeless. He talked about trans people. He talked about Black people, Black women, Jewish people, the Muslim community. Most importantly, he spoke to the working class of all races, okay? Let people know he will be a mayor for all New Yorkers. But Van Jones didn’t like that. He thought it was divisive.
Jones argued on CNN that Mamdani “missed an opportunity” and was too aggressive in his speech.
“I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that’s not the Mamdani that we’ve seen on TikTok and the great interviews and stuff like that,” he said.
Charlamagne held nothing back in his review of Jones’s analysis.
He said:
Van, shut the F up forever, okay? There was no opportunity missed. The man just won! He just won. After you won, yes, you’re gonna celebrate. Yes, you gonna talk loud. What do you mean he wasn’t warm enough? He took a victory lap and he deserved to take a victory lab because he won. I just don’t understand how in the era of Trump, we still telling people how to talk. The language of politics is dead and Donald Trump killed it. And you know when you can really talk that talk? After you win.
Charlamagne said he went through Mamdani’s entire speech trying to make sense of Jones’s take. He argued there was nothing “divisive” about calling out “bad landlords” and “billionaires who are corrupt and don’t pay their fair share taxes.”
“How can Van Jones be mad that someone is challenging capitalism and authoritarian strategy?” he asked.
Guest Mehdi Hasan reminded Charlamagne of another take Jones offered in 2017 about Trump addressing Congress.
Hasan said:
It’s very hard for me to get inside of Van Jones’s head, but I would remind people that Van Jones in 2017 is the guy who gave us the most famous line of the first Trump administration. Remember when Trump gave that speech in Congress? Van Jones went on CNN and said, tonight he became president of the United States. So, Van Jones thinks that Donald Trump gives unifying speeches that make him president, but thinks Zohran Mamdani, who’s united a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi income coalition, is divisive. That tells you more about Van Jones than it does tell you about Zohran Mamdani.
Watch above via The Breakfast Club.
