Van Jones defends himself after he called President Trump’s speech an “extraordinary moment”

Van Jones of the CNN program "Crossfire" poses at the CNN Worldwide All-Star Party, on Friday, Jan. 10, 2014, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Hours after he praised President Donald Trump for acting like a president during Tuesday night’s primetime address to a joint session of Congress, CNN’s Van Jones had to defend his position.

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On Tuesday night, Jones said that Trump “became the President of the United States” during the speech:

“He became President of the United States in that moment. Period. There are a lot of people who have a lot of reasons to be frustrated with him, to be fearful of him, to be mad at him. But that was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics, period. And he did something extraordinary for people who have been hoping that he would become unifying, hoping that he might find someway to become presidential. They should be happy with that moment.”

Jones explained Wednesday that there was a distinct difference between praising a speech and supporting a president. The former staffer of President Barack Obama pointed out that some Democrats seemed perturbed by the high praise Trump received.

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“I think Democrats have expected he was going to stay that bad,” Jones explained. “So much of what the liberals have made an issue of isn’t just his agenda, but his temperament and his tone and his team.”

Jones said he received criticism from the left for complimenting Trump.

“Everybody got mad at me for saying this, but I’m going to say to you, watch the bounce he gets out of that speech and watch how he starts to use a different playbook. Liberals are going to have to reset,” Jones said.

Jones stopped short at giving a further compliment to Trump, though he did say it was time for Democrats to take him more seriously.

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