Writer Michael Harriot, with receipts in hand, called out CNN’s Van Jones for lying about being misquoted by a reporter at Jewish publication earlier this week in a keynote address delivered to a Jewish organization.
Harriot took to his Twitter account earlier this week to blast Jones and provided proof, along with audio that the commentator wasn’t exactly being honest. Jones defended himself while thanking the reporter who retracted an earlier statement saying that Jones apologized to the Jewish community at a dinner in New York City on Monday.
The controversy transpired earlier this week when Jacob Kornbluh, a senior political reporter for the Jewish publication The Forward, went to his Twitter account and wrote that Jones had apologized for the “silence” of Black people for not chastising Ye after he stated that he loved Hitler on the right-wing program infowars.
The artist formerly known as Kanye West also remarked that the Jewish community should forgive the racist German leader for his atrocities against Jewish people in Germany.
In a now-deleted Tweet, Kornbluh walked back his initial comments and posted a clarification that Jones did not make an apology.
“CLARIFICATION:
did not apologize for alleged Black silence about Kanye. To the contrary: he stressed that many in his community are speaking out forcefully. In speech, he said he was sorry that he + others didn’t do more before Kanye. Apologies for any confusion.
”Jones acknowledged the post and replied back to Kornbluh:
“Thanks for the apology & correction,
. If I HAD said Black folks weren’t holding Kanye/Ye accountable, that woulda been a lie—coz zillions of us HAVE condemned Ye. Let’s stick together and get louder vs hate.”
This response lit a fire in Harriot.
He wrote that Jones was a “boldfaced liar” who contacted Black media outlets to try to “get them to retract a story” yet, he did not do the same toward the white media outlets. Harriot also provided the transcript of his speech as well as the audio clip of Jones saying the statement he denied making in his Tweet.
On Thursday, Harriot followed up on what he posted the previous day.