Van Jones: ‘Democrats are hurt’ that election didn’t repudiate Trump

CNN’s Van Jones said Wednesday morning that “a lot of Democrats are hurt” over the tight race between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, with the former Obama adviser observing his party “wanted to see a repudiation of this direction for the country.” 

Races in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada were still too close to call as of early Wednesday afternoon, leaving both Biden and Trump short of the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency. 

Republicans also unexpectedly gained seats in the Democratic-controlled House, while the GOP appears to be headed to holding on to its majority in the Senate, results many political pundits and pollsters did not predict. 

“I think a lot of Democrats are hurt tonight,” Jones said during CNN’s election coverage. “We wanted to see a repudiation of this direction for the country. And the fact that it’s this close, I think … it hurts. It just hurts.”

“There’s the moral victory, and there’s the political victory,” he continued. “They are not the same. The Democratic political victory might still come. But I believe people wanted a moral victory tonight.”

‘There’s a moral victory, and there’s a political victory, and they’re not the same thing.’ — CNN’s @VanJones68 explains why some Democratic voters are feeling both hopeful and disappointed pic.twitter.com/rPGPS0hjI4

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 4, 2020

“There were people hoping for a big repudiation in this election and that has not yet come,” Jones concluded. “And because of that, a lot of people are hurt and scared tonight in the Democratic Party.”  

CNN’s final polls showed Biden 8 points up on Trump nationally, with the network also having the former vice president up 12 points in Michigan and 8 points in Wisconsin. The president is currently within seven-tenths of a point in both battleground states. 

FiveThirtyEight projected that Democrats had a 70 percent chance to take back the Senate, while Biden had a 89 percent chance of winning the presidency.  

Markets on Wall Street were way up on Wednesday, with analysts pointing to the possibility of a split government with a Republican Senate and Democratic president as a primary driver. 

The Dow is up more than 700 points as of early Wednesday afternoon, while the Nasdaq composite is up more than 4 percent with a more than 400-point jump.