1:57:27 Van Jones, he... the way I hear him speak, and he wrote an op-ed about this, the brass at CNN went, uh, Van, my man. Van the man. You are... you're talking about... Russia thing being a big nothing burger? First of all, you're using Hillary Clinton's words? We all recall she used that to great pleasure and hilarity at the Recode conference. So he's... I don't understand why anyone would use it ever because it's not... He's in the milieu. He's in the milieu. That's obvious. He's hanging out with the Clintons somehow, somewhere, even though he's saying, oh, the, you know, actually, yes, because... No, it's definitely milieu speak. Yeah, milieu, milieu, milieu, milieu speak.
1:58:14 So it comes on pooper and something interesting has happened. We have a change in the narrative. A conservative activist named James O'Keefe has released another selectively edited tape today. There it is. It used to be deceptively edited tape. Now it's selectively edited tape. That is a new phrase they're using. Well, I think they got busted for using deceptively when you, cause you could, you did this, you play, you can get the original whole tape and it wasn't deceptive. It was, it was what they were talking about except it was edited down. Otherwise it's really boring. And so you could say selectively edit and is also, here's another interesting trick. You've said deceptively enough that when somebody, it's the same number of syllables.
1:59:10 Yeah, so you swap out deceptive for selective and edited tape so that the key words are edited tape. The tape's been edited. Edited. And so people are still, they're still hearing deceptive. Yes, yes, that's what I knew you would say. And I agree. Right. Yeah, and I agree. I wholeheartedly agree. The irony is This was, you know, like a five minute segment and I was selectively editing it down for the no agenda audience and I did realize that at the time, so. A conservative activist named James O'Keefe has released another selectively edited tape today, this time targeting CNN political commentator Van Jones. And Van Jones joins us now.
1:59:54 Just explain what happened here. Who were you talking to? Where were you? What was the context? Okay, so I was standing outside the bureau in Los Angeles, you know, and I'll talk to anybody. I don't care. Janitor, homeless person, police officer, pop star. I'll talk to anybody. So a guy comes up to me and starts engaging in conversation. I talk to him. Start off with your excuse. How did you get burned? I'm gonna I wanted to cut this down, but I could even further than I did I just couldn't because every other minute is like Van Jones Just say another like oh my god. This guy got whipped like dude. You better you better retract that shit now I don't care how you do it you go on pooper show you suck up to the white man from the CIA I don't care what you have to do you're doing it Van Jones. You're out on your black ass comes up He starts to engage me in conversation. I talked to everybody and
2:00:39 And he starts asking these questions around what's going on in American politics. As you know, I have been beating the drum about- I'm sorry, I gotta go back on that. I talk to everybody, just listen to his examples. Oh, even the poor schlubs who are way beneath my class. Listen to this. A conservative activist named James O'Keefe has released another selectively edited tape today, this time targeting CNN political commentator Van Jones. And Van Jones joins us now. Just explain what happened here. Who were you talking to? Let's see what he's talking about. Where were you? What was the context? Okay, so I was standing outside the bureau in Los Angeles, you know, and I'll talk to anybody. I don't care. Janitor, homeless person, police... Janitor, homeless person. I'm one of those up there who has money and is rich, you know. American dream, black man who's on top of the world. You homeless man, I'll talk to you. I'm like that, you know. I'm cool. I'm cool like that.
2:01:30 janitor. It is all equivalency janitor, man, janitor, homeless janitors are considered the lousy, just at the low end of things. And it's probably, it's probably means more to a black person than to a white guy. Like this probably actually reminds me of that scene that was on the, uh, the view where one of the girls on there says, uh, Oh, good to talk about the immigration process. Oh, who's going to clean our toilets? Remember that? Yes. Yeah. I bet she was excoriated for saying that, but I think you said it. I think Van Jones went to Yale. Does that mean anything?
2:02:18 Well, I doubt if he's in skull and bones, but I'll talk to anybody. I hear janitor, homeless person, police officer, pop star. I'll talk to anybody. Pop star. The guy comes up. Pop star. Hi, pop star. I'm Van Jones. Surely you've heard of me from the homeless guy. Starts to engage me in conversation. I talk to everybody. And he starts asking these questions around what's going on in American politics. As you know, I have been beating the drum about progressives going so far overboard on Russia. The news industry should be going in on Russia because anytime you got the President of the United States
2:02:54 under investigation by the FBI, that is a new story. But progressives have to be very careful that we don't put all our eggs in that basket because the chances of this cowardly Republican Party actually impeaching and then removing a president, something that's never happened, I think is very, very slight. And so I was about to go into that, I said there's nothing you can do, and then a bunch of my guys from CNN came out and we started talking. So he took that little bitty thing and made it seem like I was out here saying that there's nothing wrong that Donald Trump has been doing. This guy is a hoaxter, he's a fraudster, he's been- He's a shuckster, he's a huckster, he's all jive and all that.
2:03:34 He's a hoaxter and fraudster. When it's stir, you can add stir to anything. He's a podcaster. He's a podcaster. He's a hoaxter. He's a fraudster. He's a podcaster for crying out loud. He's been convicted. He's paid fines. He had to apologize. He's a scumbag. And he does this stuff. He says he was convicted man convicted and we also said that FBI was investigating Trump disguised This guy just throws this these memes in there to keep them keep the pot boiling. Oh, he'll throw in the selectively edited to been convicted He's paid fine. We have to apologize. He's a scumbag and he does this stuff all the time So when on the tape you say that the Russian investigation was the big and he does this stuff all the time He does it all the time. The huckster under fraud. She just does this all the time
2:04:18 time. And he does this stuff all the time. So when on the tape you say that the Russian investigation was a big nothing burger, what do you mean? I meant for progressive. Very good Anderson. Of course this was all rehearsed. You know we knew this was going to happen because he wrote the op-ed which is pointed to. But the question is exactly what we want to know. Well what about this nothing burger man? For progressives to keep jumping up and down about this doesn't make a lot of sense because You've got a bunch of us who are acting as if this guy's gonna be impeached tomorrow. That Trump is gonna be impeached and he's gonna be gone. Listen, from a political point of view, if you're looking honestly, you do not have the ability to both impeach and remove this guy. So from a political point of view, it's a nothing burger. You've got to be focused on real stuff like jobs, healthcare, addiction, and stay focused on the substantive issues that affect real people.
2:05:07 No, yeah, you're not talking about stuff that's not going to register for ordinary people. It's nothing for ordinary people. Real people are going to be worried about jobs, health care. Ordinary people. John, the ordinary people, you know, folks, ordinary people, dumb as a rock people, those people, you know, CNN, dumb, dumb, dumb. dumb people are going to be worried about jobs, healthcare, addiction, that kind of stuff. We've got to stay focused on that. And that's where I was about to go, but I don't know this guy. Then my guys come up from, from CNN, whom I love at the, my guys at CNN, who
2:05:47 Who I love? I love. He must be really worried about his job. Oh, he got burned. That kind of stuff. We've got to stay focused on that. And that's where I was about to go. But I don't know this guy. Then my guys come up from CNN, whom I love at the Bureau, and we start talking. Listen, if you're still falling for selectively edited videotape in 2017, you have not been paying attention. But for the White House to fall for it and promote it, what's really terrible. You said that too many Democrats see the Russia controversy as a kind of magical get out of jail free card, meaning that they think the president is somehow going to be impeached. Listen, we have a bunch of problems in our party and rather than dealing with those problems in a serious way, rather than getting back to talking about jobs, back to talking about the real pain at the bottom here in our country, you've got a lot of people
2:06:38 just going in loops and cycles. I'm not talking about news people, you've got to cover this news. I'm talking about progressive activists who talk about Russia all day and don't talk about jobs any day. That has got to stop. And if you think that just talking about Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia is going to be a way to either get this guy impeached or removed or win an election, I think you are wrong. I think we need to get back to substantive stuff for ordinary people, not only the stuff that the news media is excited about. Van, thanks very much. You can read Van's full editorial on the tape and the NothingBurger comment at CNN.com. Much ado about NothingBurger. He's tainted. This is where you go, he's tainted. Uh-huh, tainted. We have quite a few people to thank for show 943.