Van Jones: TikTok helped Harris go from ‘cringe to cool’
CNN commentator Van Jones said Vice President Harris went from “cringe to cool” in 24 hours, as videos of her continue to go viral on TikTok.
“There’s something happening that’s hard to quantify, because what’s happening on TikTok right now, is extraordinary,” Jones said Monday on CNN. “All the things that were cringey about Kamala, her laugh, the coconut tree comment, being unburdened by what — all those weird things she’s said.”
“She’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours as a whole generation has taken all that content and remixed it in all these incredible TikTok videos,” he added.
His comments come after President Biden announced Sunday he would withdraw from the- presidential race and endorse Harris as his replacement. Democrats quickly rallied behind the vice president, whose campaign raised $81 million in its first 24 hours.
Videos and remixes of Harris have been widely circulated on TikTok and other social media platforms. The memes of the vice president come from her coconut tree comments during a swearing-in ceremony for Hispanic educational advancement leaders more than a year ago.
Social media users have used that speech as the basis for many of their remixes. After Biden threw his support behind Harris for the White House, many Democrats coalesced around her sharing coconut emojis or photos.
Jones said there’s been a jump in enthusiasm since Biden exited the race.
“For three weeks after Joe Biden had that debate debacle, we were kind of sitting in outside the ICU with a death watch for democracy just imagining what it’s going to be like to have Donald Trump back in charge, what he’s going to do to us,” the commentator said.
“And the minute that Joe Biden stepped back and let someone else step forward, she caught a rocket ship of enthusiasm,” he continued. “And hope and just pent-up desire for something not the future that looked like it was going to be inevitable.”
He added that Harris “has pulled together an unbelievable movement behind her.”
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