Van Jones Cops a Plea

A sharp-eyed Power Line reader directed us to this C-SPAN video featuring Van Jones, President Obama’s short-lived “green jobs” czar, admitting around the 19:14 mark what is plain to anyone who pays attention, namely, that the environmental movement is basically an adjunct of the Democratic Party:

“I’m critical of myself, first, and the environmentalists.  When the oil spill had happened in the spring of 2010, there was another moment to say, ‘Hold on a second, let’s relook at energy policy in America.  Should we be subsidizing companies who are risking our health immediately and in the long-term?’”  We didn’t do it.  You’ve never seen the environmental movement more quiet during an oil spillI guarantee you, if John McCain had been President, with that oil spill, or George Bush had been President with that oil spill, I’d have been out there with a sign protesting.  I didn’t, because of who the President was.   Well, that’s a bad, uh, uh…that’s not good for the earth, it’s not good for the cause, it’s probably not good for the President.  It’s certainly not the way we should conduct ourselves.  And so, I’m very tough on progressive movements and leaders, including myself, who did not stand on principle, based upon who we looked across and saw as President.”

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