CNN’s Van Jones Apologizes To Vivek Ramaswamy In Confrontation About Prior Death Threats

CNN political commentator Van Jones apologized to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for previous harsh words that preceded death threats against the former candidate’s family, according to footage posted Friday.

Jones had called Ramaswamy “a demagogue” and “dangerous” during a Dec. 6 segment on CNN following a primary debate where the-then presidential candidate addressed the “great replacement theory.” Ramaswamy encountered Jones in-person at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Thursday, where he recounted the police arresting a man sending death threats to himself and his family “within 48 hours” of Jones’ remark, according to footage filmed by conservative political commentator Benny Johnson.

“So you were on-air, and you said that he’s like a demagogue, he’s dangerous, he’s gonna be around for 50 years, long after Donald Trump’s gone,” Ramaswamy told Jones. “So the first time in the campaign, we get a death threat of a man who wants to show up in New Hampshire. Thankfully, the police intervened and got him.”

The suspect, 30-year-old Tyler Anderson, allegedly sent text messages on Dec. 8 threatening to kill Ramaswamy and his supporters while he campaigned in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to a Dec. 11 press release by the District of New Hampshire U.S. Attorney’s Office. Authorities arrested him on Dec. 9 after federal agents tracked down threatening messages sent to Ramaswamy’s phone and home address, according to The New York Times.

Ramaswamy said his security guard called him at 3 a.m. the following day that someone showed up at their house “with four dead bodies.”

“And I’m not going to attribute that to your comment, because whatever it is. But for our family, you know what, publicly I didn’t do it for our family. Yeah, it pissed us the heck off actually. So the reality is, I do not try to engage in rhetoric that gets other people in danger of bodily harm. But I do think that if somebody’s gonna, even if you didn’t intend to provoke that kind of ire on my family, yeah, at that week it landed with me,” Ramaswamy continued.

Jones asked Ramaswamy for his personal cell phone number, promising to call and apologize to him and his wife in the following couple of days.

“I will call you in a couple days. I’ll apologize to your wife,” Jones said.

“Okay, we don’t need to do any of this on-air,” Ramaswamy replied. “And you know what we can do? We can turn the page and maybe have a chapter to demonstrate what actual good discourse looks like in this country. And that’s not just on you, that’s on me as well. Okay, it’s up to us.”

Jones said during the Dec. 6 segment that Ramaswamy embraced conspiracy theories and represented the “rise of an American demagogue.” The remark responded to Ramaswamy stating that the “great replacement theory” is a “basic statement of the Democratic party’s platform” at the 2024 Republican primary debate held on Dec. 6.

“And the smug, condescending way that he just spews this poison out, is very, very dangerous,” Jones said. “Because he won’t stop Trump, but he’s going to outlive Trump by about 50 years. You’re watching the rise of an American demagogue that is a very, very despicable person. And I literally, I was— I was shaking listening to him talk because a lot of people don’t know. That is one step away from Nazi propaganda coming out of his mouth.”