Van Jones is walking back recent comments he made about the casualties left by the Israel-Hamas war.
After appearing Friday on Real Time with Bill Maher, during which he referred to online videos of dead babies killed in Palestine as a massive “disinformation campaign” on behalf of Iran and Qatar, the CNN host apologized on social media.
“Yeah, I messed up on this one. And I’m sorry. I was trying to raise awareness about foreign adversaries creating chaos online – which is undermining democracy everywhere,” he wrote on X.
“But what I said was easily misunderstood, and the way I said it was flat-out insensitive,” added Jones. “Babies are dying every day in Gaza. Nobody should dispute that fact or make light of it in any way. To the people living in fear and burying family members every day, of all ages — I apologize.”
The post comes after Jones accused Iran and Qatar of “deliberately trying to divide the West against itself” with a social media disinformation campaign.
“If you open your phone, and all you see is dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby, Diddy,” said Jones on Real Time, earning laughter and applause. “Dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby… That’s basically your whole feed.”
Since the episode, Jones has faced backlash on social media, sharing and responding to one that called him “truly disgraceful and vile” for his words. “I’m sorry dead Gaza babies bother you so much. Maybe tell the people paying you to put lipstick on a genocide to stop killing them,” the post read.
Tuesday marks two years since the coordinated Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Meanwhile the death toll of Israel’s ensuing campaign in Gaza has since surpassed 66,000, according to the Associated Press.
This article was published by Glenn Garner on 2025-10-05 16:10:00
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