Van Jones: Amber Rose RNC speech ‘most dangerous’ for Democrats

Democratic strategist Van Jones said Monday that model and rapper Amber Rose’s speech was “the most effective” of Day 1 of the Republican National Convention and therefore could be “the most dangerous” for Democrats in this election cycle.

“That was probably the most dangerous speech for the Democratic coalition,” Jones said Monday evening on CNN. “That is a young woman of color. She is describing the experience that a lot of people have — feeling that maybe, if you’re around too many liberals, you might get criticized too much or you might not be able to speak your mind, and she spoke to it really well.”

“And she’s way more famous than any of us up here — I’m going to tell you that — way more famous. And so to the extent that these guys are trying to bust up our coalition, that was a bunker buster right there,” Jones, a CNN commentator, said.

Rose spoke Monday at the RNC, and she described her decision to “let go of my fear” of being judged for supporting former President Trump after initially thinking he was racist. Her father challenged her on that theory, she said in her speech, and she did more research.

“I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight, it’s all love,” Rose said. “And that’s when it hit me: These are my people. This is where I belong.”

“So, I let go of my fear of judgment, of being misunderstood, of getting attacked by the left, and I put the red hat on too,” she added.

The CNN panel praised Rose for her political acumen, and Jones said he would not be surprised if she had a political future.

“This person is super talented, OK? Like, this person knows how to speak plainly and directly, knows how to use the camera, the cadence of it,” CNN commentator Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist, said in response to Jones. “They got something there.”

Jones praised the way Rose was able to speak to the American people through the camera, rather than feeling compelled to address a massive crowd, which can be less effective.

“In those big arenas, it’s hard not to want to fill up the room,” Jones said in a clip first highlighted by Mediaite. “But you’re not talking to the 30,000 people there, you’re talking to the 30 million people at home, and she was, I mean, she was the most effective.”

“You can be heard in that hall, but you’re in somebody’s living room,” he added. “She understood that, and I would not be surprised if she doesn’t have a political future.”

The Biden campaign pushed back on Rose’s suggestion that Americans were better off under Trump, saying in a statement to The Hill, “if she’s talking about his billionaire donors, she’s right. But for Black communities, it’s the opposite story.”

“Black unemployment, Black uninsured rates, and crime rates skyrocketed under Trump’s leadership, because the truth is simple,” Biden-Harris campaign senior spokesperson Sarafina Chitika continued in the statement. “Donald Trump doesn’t care about us, our lives, or our livelihoods. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to line the pockets of millionaires like Rose at the expense of actual Black communities, and those are the facts.” 

Trump, who was officially named the GOP nominee for president at the convention, also named his running mate: Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) on Monday.

Updated at 12:21 p.m. EDT