Charlamagne blasts Van Jones’ criticism of Mamdani’s victory speech

Radio host Charlamagne tha God told CNN host Van Jones to shut up Wednesday after he criticized New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s fiery victory speech.

Jones accused Mamdani of a “character switch” during an impassioned election-night address on Tuesday, arguing that he had missed an opportunity to bring more New Yorkers into his camp after a contentious election.

“I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent,” Jones told the election night panel on CNN. “I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling.

“And that’s not the Mamdani that we’ve seen on TikTok and the great interviews and stuff like that, so I felt like there was a little bit of a character switch here where the warm, open, embracing guy that’s close to working people was not on stage tonight, and there was some other voice on stage.”

“Man, shut the F up forever, Okay? Damn. There was no opportunity missed. The man just won. Alright? He just won. After you won, yes, you’re going to celebrate. Yes, you’re going to talk loud,” Charlamagne responded to Jones’ comments. “What do you mean he wasn’t warm enough? He took a victory lap, and he deserved to take a victory lap because he won.

“I just don’t understand how in the era of Trump, we’re still telling people how to talk. The language of politics is dead, and Donald Trump killed it. And you know when you can really talk that talk? After you win.”

Charlamagne struggled to discern which part of the speech Jones possibly could have objected to, saying his best guess was Mamdani’s rhetoric where he condemned landlords and the wealthy in the city by comparing them to President Donald Trump.

“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said in his victory speech.

Charlemagne argued that there was nothing divisive in Mamdani’s speech.

“The reason a lot of things don’t change in this country is because you don’t have enough politicians that are willing to challenge capitalism, and Zohran is doing that. So, how can Van Jones be mad that someone is challenging capitalism and authoritarian strategy?,” he said.

He then turned to his guest, former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, asking him to explain why Jones might have found the speech divisive.

Hasan answered that it would be hard to get inside Jones’ mindset, but offered the context that Jones had once praised Trump’s first speech before a Joint Session of Congress in 2017, and declared Trump “became President of the United States in that moment.”

“So Van Jones thinks that Donald Trump gives unifying speeches that make him president, but thinks Zohran Mamdani, who’s united a multi-racial, multicultural, multi-income coalition, is divisive? That tells you more about Van Jones than it does tell you about Zohran Mamdani,” Hasan argued.