Van Jones rips ‘loser’ Trump over GOP loss in race for Santos seat

CNN analyst Van Jones took a swipe at former President Trump for sowing distrust in early voting after Republican candidate Mazi Pilip lost in Tuesday’s special House election in New York, where a severe storm may have impacted in-person voting.

During a roundtable on CNN, Republican analyst Scott Jennings pointed to how GOP skepticism about early voting may have been a disadvantage in the race in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

“Voting early, voting by mail, ballot harvesting, getting your votes in, it looks to me like the Democrats here crushed in the early voting in Nassau, where the Republicans had to do well, and you’re always just one snowstorm away from some kind of a turnout problem,” Jennings said, correctly predicting a win for former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D).

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper then quipped “Who could have possibly given the Republicans the idea that it’s not a good idea to —”

Jones interjected with the hypothetical question, “Who could have given you such a stupid strategy? I’m just trying to think to myself, is there someone who’s just a perpetual loser who loses over and over again, who also has a losing strategy when it comes to not voting early?”

Neither Cooper nor Jones directly named the former president, though it was a likely reference to Trump’s repeated criticism of early voting. After winning the presidency in 2016, Trump lost in 2020, while the GOP lost control of the Senate and holds a narrow majority in the House, despite predictions of a “red wave” in 2022.

Suozzi went on to beat Pilip in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat of former Rep. George Santos (R), who was booted from the lower chamber in December in the wake of various criminal charges and a scathing Ethics Committee report. 

Suozzi’s victory flipped the district back to blue, threatening the House’s already razor-thin GOP majority.

The district, which includes parts of Long Island and Queens, was one of several areas across the mid-Atlantic and southern New England to be slammed with a nor’easter that brought heavy snowfall and rain Tuesday.