CNN's Van Jones Tears Up Over Biden Win: 'It's Easier To Be A Parent This Morning'
Van Jones’s emotional CNN speech about Biden’s win goes viral
The second it was annonuced that Joe Biden had won the presidency, the U.S. erupted in celebration. But amid the popped champagne bottles and the triumphant and peaceful marches though the streets, CNN’s Van Jones’ took a beat, on air, to truly memorialize what it means that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are set to lead this country. Speaking directly to the public and coming to tears at one point, Van Jones said, “now we can breathe.”
“It’s easier to be a parent this morning. It’s easier to be a dad. It’s easier to tell your kids that character matters. The truth matters. Being a good person matters,” Jones told the audience.
“This is vindication for a lot of people who have suffered under this administration,” Jones continued. “If you’re Muslim in this country, you won’t have to worry about the President not wanting you here. If you’re an immigrant, you won’t have to worry about your babies being snatched away. If you’re a Dreamer, you won’t have to be worried about getting sent away for no reason. When George Floyd was murdered, he said ‘I can’t breathe.’ Over these past four years, too many of us have felt like they couldn’t breathe.”
Worse still, Trump has emboldened racists, has rallied them, and that is terrifying. Jones says that a Biden presidency won’t be so “exhausting.”
“Going to the store while people get nastier and nastier as they become less and less afraid to show their racism makes you tired,” he says. “Being worried about if your sister can just go to Walmart and get back into her car without somebody saying offensive something to her — it’s not okay.”
And what about Trump’s lack of accountability? How a very bad man continues to fall upwards, continues to avoid punishment? We impeached this man this year and it seems like it didn’t matter. But now, in a Biden presidency, Jones said he can show his children that decency matters again.
“The character of the country matters again,” he says. “Being a good man matters again. I want my sons to look at this and understand: it’s easy to do things the cheap and easy way. You can get away with that for a while. But eventually, it comes back around. That’s a good thing for this country.”
It’s true that some people have felt Jones has been too soft on Trump in the past, so take his message today how you will, but it’s hard not to agree with his final words, which is that today, the day that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris secured their spot in the White House, “is a good day.” You can read the transcript of the CNN commentator’s full speech here.
