CNN contributor Van Jones said that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is “playing a very dangerous game” by accusing Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard of being a “favorite of the Russians.”
Appearing on Friday night’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on CNN, Jones discussed the latest dust-up between the two that ended with a Gabbard tweetstorm calling Clinton the “queen of warmongers.”
WATCH:
“She’s playing a very dangerous game,” Jones told CNN anchor Erin Burnett. “If you’re concerned about disinformation, what the Russians do is spread disinformation, get people divided against each other. That is what just happened, just throw out some information, disinformation, smear somebody. She is Hillary Clinton. She’s a legend. She’s going to be in the history books, she’s a former nominee of our party, and she just came out against a sitting U.S. congresswoman, a decorated war veteran, and somebody who’s running for the nomination of our party with just a complete smear and no facts.”
Jones referenced the “back story” of Gabbard being picked by the Democratic Party establishment, then rejecting her DNC position after seeing the Clinton allies “doing stuff they shouldn’t have been doing in the primary.” Gabbard eventually endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016 and “it’s been payback hell ever since.”
“It’s getting kind of hot,” Jones said, referencing Gabbard’s tweets. “I’m telling you, Hillary Clinton is playing a very dangerous game. I do not want someone of her stature to legitimate these attacks against anybody. If you’ve got real evidence, come forward with it. But if you’re just going to smear people casually on podcasts, you are playing right into the Russians’ hands.” (RELATED: ‘I Stand Against Everything She Represents’: Tulsi Gabbard Deconstructs Hillary Clinton In ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ Interview)
Burnett explained that the Russians backing someone is “very different than calling someone a Russian asset.”