CNN commentator Van Jones made a dire prediction on Thursday regarding President Joe Biden if he does not perform well in the debate next week.
Biden facing off against former President Donald Trump in their first debate of the 2024 cycle will be the “entire election,” Jones opined during a CNN panel.
The “entire world will be watching,” Jones told CNN host Jim Acosta, and “if Biden goes out there and messes up, it’s game over.”
6.20.24 1115 am ET CNN Newsroom Anchor, Jim Acosta @acosta w/ In Alphabetical Order:
CNN Senior Political Commentator, Van Jones @VanJones68
CNN Legal Commentator, Jim Schultz, @jim_schultz
What to expect at Debate 1 ?
EXCELLENT Back and Forth pic.twitter.com/Clho2Ya4DW— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) June 20, 2024
Expanding on his warning, Jones continued, “If he walks out there and a week later he’s lower in the polls, it’s panic in the party.”
Heading into the debate, which CNN is holding next Thursday evening, polls show a competitive race between Biden and Trump.
Jones, who served as an environmental adviser to former President Barack Obama, also shared his view on what happens if Biden excels in his debate appearance.
“If he goes in there and he can handle himself against Donald Trump, a runaway train, a locomotive, a raging bull, then this guy deserves another shot to be president, because that is tough,” he said.
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“You couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it,” he added. “If you can stand toe-to-toe with a runaway train like Donald Trump for an hour-and-a-half, you are fit to be president, period, point blank.”
Jones concluded, “This is the whole presidency in a bottle in a week.”
CNN commentator and former Trump White House lawyer Jim Schultz then gave his take on what a bad performance by Trump could mean for the former president.
Trump “needs to have a good night. He has to have a good night on the policy issues,” Schultz said.
“He needs, to the extent he can, stay out of the gutter as much as he can, because, look, the issues are on his side,” Schultz went on. “He has the momentum now.”
The race is Trump’s “to lose at this point in many ways,” Schultz said, adding that Jones “just about admitted that here, that the momentum is in his favor.”
“President Biden is going to have to do something dramatic to convince people that he has the mental acuity to last four more years in that office and lead this country,” he concluded.
