CNN’s Van Jones Calls Colleague Jeff Lord ‘Adorable Like a Fraggle’ in NYT Profile

One of the biggest moments of the 2016 campaign was a fierce battle between CNN’s Van Jones and Jeff Lord amid that controversy about Donald Trump not vociferously disavowing support from the KKK. It was one of the most explosive fights on cable news this year, and Jones has duked it out with Lord a couple of times in the past year-plus.

But Jones did have a few nice words to say about Lord in a New York Times profile on him out today.

The Times looks at Jones’ rising star after the exhaustive campaign season, and the profile features Jones and Lord complimenting each other (but not quite all the way):

“How can you not like Jeffrey?” Mr. Jones said. “He’s adorable. He’s like a Fraggle.”

Then he paused. “If a Fraggle had a tendency towards terrible revisionist history.”

“Which is exactly how I feel about him,” said Mr. Lord, speaking later by phone. “I think Van’s a terrific person and a great friend. We just disagree on everything, and God bless America.”

And after sparring with Kayleigh McEnany on the air last week, Jones said, “I think she’s amazing.”

One of the big themes of this profile is Jones’ desire not to demonize everyone he disagrees with and his recent attempts to engage in a substantive way with Trump supporters:

“If you only focus on the toxic crap, you’re not being fair to the Trump voters,” Mr. Jones said. “But if you deny all the toxic crap, you’re not being fair to the rest of Americans.”

You can read the full profile here.

[image via screengrab]

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