Van Jones: Dems Should Use Ebola As Campaign Talking Point Against GOP

MRC NewsBusters ^ | 10-5-2014 | Jeffrey Meyer

[smoothsailing]

Van Jones: Dems Should Use Ebola As Campaign Talking Point Against GOP

By Jeffrey Meyer | October 5, 2014 | 12:23 PM EDT

It appears as though former Obama official Van Jones has taken Rahm Emmanuel’s belief that you never “want a good crisis go to waste” to heart during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos.

During a panel discussion on the upcoming midterm elections, Jones suggested that Democrats should point out that the “Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in.”

VIDEO LINK

After host George Stephanopoulos highlighted how “Nate Silver's team at FiveThirtyEight gives the GOP a 59% of retaking the Senate” Van Jones shamefully urged Democrats to use Ebola as a talking point in 2014:

We can't let the Republicans get away with some of the stuff they’re doing this week,  just trying to bash Obama. Hey, you know, government is always your enemy until you need a friend. This Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in.

The Democrat, and host of CNN's Crossfire, continued to attack the GOP and hinted that another government shutdown could cause an Ebola epidemic in the United States:

A year ago Ted Cruz shut down America's government, shut down the CDC over shenanigans. What if that happened this year? You got to start putting the Republicans on the defensive for the fact that they believe that you can take a wrecking ball to America's government, never pay a price.

ObamaCare means that 8 million people who couldn't have gone to the doctor last year, if they feel sick today, they would if they got Obama, they can go see the doctor. The Democrats have got to start talking like that.

The entire segment focused on how Democrats are desperately tying to maintain control of the Senate and Van Jones’ attempt to exploit Ebola for political gain seems to confirm such desperation as the GOP is poised to make substantial gains in Congress.

See relevant transcript below.

ABC’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos

October 5, 2014

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Back now with our “Politics Buzz Board.” Topping it off, just one month from election day, ISIS invading campaign airwaves. Tough GOP ads in tight senate races from New Hampshire to Colorado like this one in North Carolina from Thom Tillis. 

UNKNOWN PERSON: While ISIS grew, Obama kept waiting and Kay Hagan kept quiet. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hagan fired back. 

KAY HAGAN: I think North Carolinians need to know his position and he is spineless in this regard. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: President Obama talking about the economy and his agenda. 

BARACK OBAMA: I'm not on the ballot this fall but make no mistake these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: But was it smart to make the midterms an Obama referendum? GOP candidates pounced and new grandmother Hillary Clinton is hitting the trail. Politico reports that she'll barnstorm key midterm states like Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire when not babysitting Charlotte. Add it all up and Nate Silver's team at FiveThirtyEight gives the GOP a 59% of retaking the Senate, down one point from last week. Back with the roundtable, Mark Halperin, Bloomberg, is Nate Silver right to move just an inch away from the Republicans?

MARK HALPERIN: I don’t know. In the world of margins of errors, I'm not sure that's much of a move. You know, right now Democrats must change the electorate and I think the reason you see President Obama injecting his economic record in and you see him attacking Fox News in that same speech is because they need to change the electorate, they need to get the coalition of the ascended, the Obama voters who don't normally vote in the midterms to vote in places like North Carolina and Iowa. Go race by race today, they’ve got three of the six in the bag. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Republicans. 

HALPERIN: Republicans do. I think right now they would get the final three. Kansas, though, is a huge problem for the Republicans. They may end up netting five, even though they win six. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Pat Roberts not closing the gap there at all. Van Jones, I have to ask you this. I understand what Mark [Halperin] is saying about energizing the Obama electorate, but it did not seem like a wise move for the president to put his agenda front and center.

VAN JONES: Well, we’ve to get our base going. The other thing too is that we can't let the Republicans get away with some of the stuff they’re doing this week,  just trying to bash Obama. Hey, you know, government is always your enemy until you need a friend. This Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in. A year ago Ted Cruz shut down America's government, shut down the CDC over shenanigans. What if that happened this year? You got to start putting the Republicans on the defensive for the fact that they believe that you can take a wrecking ball to America's government, never pay a price. ObamaCare means that 8 million people who couldn't have gone to the doctor last year, if they feel sick today, they would if they got Obama, they can go see the doctor. The Democrats have got to start talking like that.

[jazusamo]

Jones is a blithering leftist idiot.

It doesn’t take big government to shut down visas from the Ebola countries, we have way more than enough to restrict travel and keep infected carriers out now.

0bamacare hasn’t enabled anyone to get medical care that couldn’t get it before it was implemented but it sure has increased the cost of health care and insurance premiums since then.

[surrey]

Duncan’s girlfriend is now bitching that the US isn’t doing enough to save him. He’s not getting the experimental drug and she’s angry. Chutzpah!

[marron]

“Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in.”

They have control of the government. As Mark Steyn points out, that means you get hassled at the border for your chocolates and your bagpipes, but MS-13 and Liberian ebola victims waltz right in.

[hummingbird]

"Bankrupt of any ideas."

--------------------------------->

And bankrupt of any compassion or soul.

Despicable.

[BenLurkin]

The progressives seriously believe that Slavery is Freedom.

[Carry_Okie]

Newt Gringrich did this? I can’t believe it.

I can.

[jospehm20]

Jones a delusional idiot.

[MaxMax]

Yes, I still have it.

[GOPJ]

Democrats please brag.

Democrats please... brag about the planeloads of sick coming from African hot zones. They wouldn't be here without YOU. Brag a little - boast a lot. YOU liberals are so superior...

Wear your tolerance on your shoulders like a dusty death cape... People will love it.

Yes, Democrats YOU opened doors to the sick, infectious, and illegals. Run on that truth. The people will love you for it - run on it - - please - it's a winner.

[Seaplaner]

Question for the genii hereabouts...

Is Thomas Eric Duncan a nationalized citizen, illegal alien, or something else?

American wants to know.

.

[spodefly]

The kind of government I believe in is not one where unionized bureaucrats involve themselves in every aspect of life while failing to do the primary job that government is Constitutionally mandated to do, like protect the citizens of this country and control the borders.

[Hambone02]

Fundamentally change our nation.....

The flood of illegal aliens into the country who were empowered and assisted by this administration has brought TB, scabies, a mystery respiratory illness that has killed multiple children and paralyzed some. Also under the watch of this administration, Ebola has arrived in Dallas, possibly Kansas City, not to mention the doctors/nurses being flown into the nation for treatment.

How is this a promotion for the Democratic Pary? How is this a Republican issue?

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping…

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[eyedigress]

President Ebola to the rescue!

[matt1234]

Jones is such an ass he actually helps our side more than his own, but he’s too pompous to realize it.

[xzins]

Obama’s Open Borders Policy is the Direct Reason ebola is in the US....not to mention enterovirus, tuberculosis, and other diseases brought in by unscreened illegal aliens from the southern border.

[PGalt]

Obolacare costs will necessarily skyrocket. Pay up peons. Busy-body bureaucrats unite!

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat

They never let a crISIS go to waste. More death, more plunder. The Center for Disease Relocation must be hiring.

[SaraJohnson]

About the worse thing one could do is discriminate against Ms. Ebola.

[Joe Boucher]

Soooo,
Them nasty pubbies invented ebola ?
I thought it was the CIA , to do away with africaners?

[Slings and Arrows]

That’s not a talking point - that’s a threat.