CNN political analyst Van Jones said that Black women would being forced to trade in their "hope" for "hurt" as former President Donald Trump appeared to be poised to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris early on Wednesday morning.
Jones, an ex-adviser to former President Barack Obama, said during a CNN broadcast before any of the three so-called "blue wall" states had been called that Trump's return to the White House would hurt Black women who thought that they might be represented by Harris instead. He disagreed with the notion that a Trump victory amounted to a blow against the "elite."
"I'm thinking about the people who are not a part of anybody's elite who are hurting tonight," said Jones. "There are African American women who know a little bit about being talked down to, and know a little bit about having their economic dreams crushed, who tried to dream a big dream over the past couple of months. And tonight, they're trading in a lot of hope for a lot of hurt."
They were hoping that maybe this time.. one of their own could be seen as worthy," he added. "Once again, they are facing rejection. And that hurts... They did everything that they knew how to do and it's going to be harder than it should be tomorrow for them to hold their heads up."
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email early on Wednesday morning.
Jones went on to say that other Americans who are not part of the "elite" and might not benefit from a Trump presidency were also "hurting" because they would likely need to deal with the "nightmare" of a Trump victory.
"If you're a parent of a trans kid, your child's face was used as a springboard to power for somebody," said Jones. "That doesn't feel good. There are going to be people tomorrow handing clothes at the dry cleaners to people who don't have [immigration] papers. There are going to be people cleaning your teeth tomorrow who don't have papers. And they're going to be terrified tonight."
"So, it's easy to blow this off, 'oh look the elites, they'll get their comeuppance,'" he continued. "It's not the elites who are gonna pay the price. It's people who woke up this morning with a dream and are going to bed with a nightmare. Those people deserve to be respected and held and talked to. Those are the people who are gonna pay the price for whatever Donald Trump is going to do."
Update 11/06/24 1:52 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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