CNN commentator Van Jones said he didn't see any of the Democratic presidential candidates having what it takes to defeat President Trump in November.
The network’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger started the conversation on the panel talking about how there’s no “transformational candidate” among the Democratic field. “There isn’t anybody (voters) that they say, ‘oh my goodness, this is the person.’”
“Or if they feel that way it’s not sustained,” Jones added. “The other thing is it just feels like everybody is partially able to take on Trump but not really.”
Thus far, he added, Democratic voters don’t believe there’s one candidate that can beat the president.
CNN’s Van Jones: feels like no Democrat candidate can go up against President Trump pic.twitter.com/sLZYIH7JCW
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) February 12, 2020
At another point during the panel discussion, Jones called Sen. Bernie Sanders a “phenomenon” but that he’s being ignored.
"Bernie Sanders is a phenomenon,” he said. “He's doing stuff we don't talk about, he appeals to young people, people of color, he's got an army of donors. If anybody else had all that we'd say this guy is our guy. But for whatever reason we talk about everybody but Bernie."
"Bernie Sanders is a phenomenon...he's doing stuff we don't talk about, he appeals to young people, people of color, he's got an army of donors. If anybody else had all that we'd say this guy is our guy. But for whatever reason we talk about everybody but Bernie." -@VanJones68 pic.twitter.com/t7vQ4BfTh9
— jordan (@JordanUhl) February 12, 2020
And on former Vice President Joe Biden, Jones couldn’t quite figure out how he seemed to be banking on support from minority voters to propel him to victory.
“Listen, he’s doing this rope a-dope strategy, ‘I’m just going to get pounded in Iowa, I’m going to get pounded in New Hampshire and I’m going to come back based on black people kind of lifting me over this sort of … all these deficits,'” Jones said.
“And maybe it’ll work for him but it’s a very odd strategy, it’s a very weird strategy and I don’t know if he knows that African-Americans are watching TV at night and see you can’t get white votes.”