Vivek Ramaswamy derided by CNN panelists for spewing 'patronizing stuff about Black folks'
CNN panelists including commentator Van Jones collectively panned Vivek Ramaswamy's remarks Tuesday after the former GOP candidate for president tried to claim the media spent decades trying to convince Black Americans that Republicans "don't care" about them.
Speaking in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, an impassioned Ramaswamy told MAGA supporters he had a message for Black Americans from the Republican Party "that the media doesn't want you to hear."
"Our message to Black Americans is this: The media has tried to convince you for decades that Republicans don't care about your communities. But we do," he said. "We want for you what we want for every American. Safe neighborhoods. Clean streets. Good jobs. A better life for your children. And a justice system that treats everyone equally, regardless of your skin color and regardless of your political beliefs."
The speech earned wide applause at the event — but was met with derision afterwards from CNN panelists, including Van Jones, who called Ramaswamy a "demagogue."
"He's good at it though," quipped Jones, noting a separate part of the speech where Ramaswamy got the crowd to repeatedly chant, "Vote Trump!"
Read also: Van Jones: 'Cringey' Black Republicans at RNC sound like they don't talk to Black people
But Jones derided the speech, saying it felt "patronizing" toward Black people.
"I don't like patronizing stuff about Black folks," said the political analyst.
"They're trying hard to reach Black folks and I just don't think they understand, we didn't miss the fact that the Republican Party of Lincoln, a party that started as a radical, anti-slavery party, became a safe haven for some white nationalists that have not been aggressively shown the door yet," he said.
Black Americans are actively engaged in politics, he emphasized — "so people act like we're dumb, like we somehow missed that there are people in the Republican Party who've been unfriendly, you just lose the people in the audience at the door with that."
Jones added that other comments from Ramaswamy "sounds like he's reading stuff that comes out of the cracker-jack box, that he thinks somebody's going to like, but there's no prize at the bottom."
"It's all shallow and soulless to me, but that's just my view," Jones finished.
This is the second night in a row where Jones unleashed on the GOP convention for trying too hard — unsuccessfully — to court Black voters.
On Monday night, Jones called it "cringey" after watching four Black men — including North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and John James of Michigan — talk up Trump during prime time slots on the first day of the convention. On that night, Robinson called Trump the "Braveheart of our time."
Jones said he believes the party has an agenda to attract more Black men, explaining the move.
"There's an opening to get Black men," he said with a laugh, "because of the double-whammy with Black men feeling the economic pain seriously and also feeling some social dislocation with when it comes to gender and feminism and what's going on."
"But this is not it, I'm going to tell you right now," he emphasized. "All four of them sounded like Black people who talk about Black people, but don't talk to Black people. That's how they sounded. My phone's blowing up because it felt so off — it felt so off — in terms of the tone."