'We woke up in a body bag': Van Jones makes stunning admission about why Trump steamrolled the establishment

CNN talking head Van Jones spoke at length Friday to his former colleague Chris Cillizza about the American political class' failure to understand which way the wind is blowing and how it knocked them over on Nov. 5.

Jones, a former Obama adviser who had several weeks to get over his election-night despair, was particularly candid about how President-elect Donald Trump was able to electorally crush Kamala Harris and retake the White House, underscoring that Trump outsmarted his critics, particularly those in the media who "misread" his appeal and extra-political strategy.

After suggesting that the liberal political establishment is "all screwed up" and detached from the electorate and its wants and needs, Jones likened the media's predictions in the lead-up to the election to the ancient practice whereby a haruspex would read omens from animal entrails.

"There used to be a time back in the day that they would cut a pig open, and they would throw the pig entrails on the ground to try to read and divine the future, right. It would be like asking, 'Did you think that you misread the pig entrails?' Like we were so off," said Jones. "We weren't reading the actual electorate at all. For instance, we were using completely outdated terms and modes of analysis and concepts like 'swing voter,' 'moderate voter,' 'male voter,' 'female voter.' None of that stuff is what Donald Trump's team was focused on."

Whereas Kamala Harris ran a political campaign largely targeting Americans on the basis of immutable characteristics, Jones suggested that Trump alternatively ran a "masculinist cultural movement," drawing numerous subcultures — including UFC, "the health and wellness people," and the "crypto folks" — into a broader tent by engaging them, talking to them, and taking them seriously.

Cillizza later acknowledged that the coalition that formed around Trump had "a little something for a lot of different people."

Jones indicated that Democrats made matters worse for themselves by thinking in terms of left and right; by failing to understand that Trump was in some cases playing a vertical game, appealing across party lines to low-trust groups as opposed to those still trusting of liberal institutions.

'We look like idiots.'

"We woke up in body bag on Election Day and didn't even know it," continued Jones. "We thought that because CNN, NPR, New York Times, all of the mainstream media was pretty much beating the hell out of Donald Trump that Trump was getting the hell beat out of him. The mainstream media is actually now, by the numbers, the fringe."

Jones underscored that alternative media has far and away eclipsed legacy media such that it's not unheard of for CNN and Fox News to grossly underperform "a Twitch streamer you've never heard of."

"We got beat on platforms I've never heard of," continued Jones. "The problem you're going to have now is when Joe Rogan sits down with Donald Trump, 48 million people watch the YouTube of the podcast. The YouTube! We didn't have that many people watch the debate on CNN. So guys — get out of my face. We had the wrong analysis. We didn't even have the conceptual framework to understand what's happening to us."

'We got beat by something that we don't understand.'

Although Harris avoided interviews for much of her campaign, when she did field questions, it was primarily on friendly mainstream media networks. She only made two prominent podcast appearances and spiked another possible appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience." Trump, meanwhile, appeared on numerous podcasts, crushing Harris' outreach by even conservative estimates.

"We're playing a different game," said Jones.

Despite signaling agreement with Jones throughout, Cillizza still appeared confused about how Trump was able to pull it off, prompting Jones to once again criticize the mental framework prevalent in the liberal media: "'How can Donald Trump?' 'How can Donald Trump?' Guys, can we cut it out? Donald Trump is not an idiot."

While establishmentarians leaned hard into their characterization of Trump as a Hitlerian figure in recent months, many have suggested over the years that the Republican president was equipped with substandard mental faculties.

Council on Foreign Relations fellow Max Boot, for instance, suggested Trump was "too stupid to be president." Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly called Trump "stupid as well as being ill-tempered." California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) similarly suggested Trump was "stupid" in her memoir. The New Republic tried combining both characterizations, calling Trump "an extremely dumb fascist."

"Let me just be very clear: Donald Trump is smarter than me, you, and all of the critics. You know how I know? Because he has the White House; the Senate; the House; the Supreme Court; the popular vote; he has a massive media system bigger than the mainstream built around him and for him; and a ... religious fervor in a political movement around him; and his best buddy is the richest person in the history of the world; and the most relevant Kennedy is with him," said Jones. "This dude is a phenomenon. He is the most powerful human on Earth and in our lifetime, and we're still staying, 'Well, how is this guy?' We look like idiots."

Jones stressed that the liberal establishment's failure to understand Trump "doesn't mean he's dumb. We don't understand it — that means we're dumb," adding, "We got beat by something that we don't understand."

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