CNN’s Van Jones is being forced out of his OWN criminal justice nonprofit after spectacular rows with his bosses — two years after Jeff Bezos gave him $100 million to pump into the charity
- CNN commentator Van Jones has been forced out of his own nonprofit after a bankruptcy in the upper echelons
- Hailed as an exceptional leader, Jones was awarded $100 million by Jeff Bezos for his philanthropic efforts in 2021
- The fallout stemmed from disagreements over the direction of the nonprofits
CNN commentator Van Jones has been forced out of his own nonprofit after a bankruptcy in the upper echelons.
Hailed by Jeff Bezos as an exceptional leader, Jones was awarded $100 million for his philanthropic efforts in 2021, but now faces the humiliation of being expelled from his own organization.
The Liberal left Dream.org’s board of directors after a falling out with top management, the Daily Beast reported Thursday night.
The fallout stemmed from disagreements over the direction of the nonprofit, multiple sources with ties to the outlet’s organization said. According to the sources, Jones was more likely to be forced to leave the company voluntarily than to leave.
Hailed as an exceptional leader, Van Jones was presented with a $100 million gift from Jeff Bezos in 2021 for his philanthropic efforts
Van Jones is best known as CNN’s star commentator and has founded several non-profit organizations
It is not clear with whom the conflicts occurred, but neither Chief Executive Officer Jamie Lunder nor CEO Nisha Anand have made any public statements following the reports.
A Dream.org subsidiary is also reportedly laying off employees despite Bezos’ climate fund — a separate three-year, $10 million grant in 2020.
Several former employees said the group squandered the money with no credit to show for it, and that Bezos’ nonprofit did not renew the grant.
“Many people have questions about Dream.org’s financial management,” said CeCe Grant, Dream’s former director of government affairs.
A spokesman for Jones did not dispute that he was ousted from the board, but said, “Van continues to work in justice innovation and beyond.”
“He is a proud supporter of their work at all levels.” With the support of Dream.org, he is working to launch a new, complementary initiative to be announced soon.”
A spokesman for Dream said Jones stopped looking after ongoing affairs in 2019, but “continued to be a valuable resource to us and we’re excited to help launch his upcoming initiative.”
Jamie Lunder, CEO of Dream.org, has made no public statement since Jones’ reported ouster
Nisha Anand, executive director of Dream.org, has not commented publicly on the matter
Van Jones was hailed as an exceptional philanthropic leader by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2021
Jones, 54, is a celebrity commentator for CNN and has sparked numerous controversies over the years.
Earlier this year, he sparked backlash for claiming the cops who beat Tire Nichols to death in Memphis in January were “driven by racism” — even though they were all black.
Jones wrote after the incident that black people were “not immune” to the effects of anti-black racism and that narratives of police violence should never be as simple as “white cop kills unarmed black man.”
“The message from society that black people are inferior, unworthy and dangerous is pervasive,” Jones wrote.
“Over many decades, numerous experiments have shown that these ideas can infiltrate both black and white minds.” “Self-loathing is a real thing.”
He said this mindset could lead a black shopkeeper “to view customers of the same race with suspicion.”
“Black people can harbor anti-Black feelings and respond to those feelings in harmful ways,” Jones added.
He went on to point out that the problem was that black cops were being “socialized” in police departments that treated neighborhoods as “war zones,” and claimed that cops of all races were “internalizing” the notion that few cops were responsible for brutal ones acts would be punished.
Jones co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which focuses in part on police brutality, and was founding CEO of REFORM, which works to reshape America’s approach to prison sentences.