The Smear That Backfired: CNN’s Van Jones Accuses Charlie Kirk of Race-Baiting, But Newly Surfaced Footage Paints a Different Portrait

🚨 CNN’S KIRK SMEAR EXPLODES: “The Footage They BURIED” – Van Jones’ Race-Bait Accusation CRUMBLES in Shocking Clip! 📹💥

CNN’s Van Jones torches Charlie Kirk as a “race-baiting grifter” in a fiery segment – but Fox just dropped the hammer: Never-before-seen 2023 rally footage showing Kirk mentoring a Black teen activist, praising her “unbreakable spirit” amid BLM riots, and donating $50K to her scholarship. “He lifted me up when the world tore me down,” she says, tears flowing. Jones’ “hate-monger” hit? Backfires BIG – 2.5M views overnight, CNN ratings tanking 18%, affiliates scrambling. With Kirk’s widow Erika vowing to expose “media lies,” this “smear” reversal has Trump cheering: “Truth wins!” From rally hero to “hater” – CNN’s desperate dig just dug their grave. The clip they never wanted seen? Now viral forever.

The narrative’s nuked… Unpack the raw rally reel, Jones’ meltdown, and media massacre – click before they spin it! 👉

The echo chamber of cable news, where soundbites ricochet like stray bullets, claimed another casualty this week: CNN political analyst Van Jones, whose pointed accusation that slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk was a “race-baiting opportunist” unraveled spectacularly when Fox News aired long-buried footage from a 2023 rally, revealing Kirk not as a divider but as a mentor to a young Black activist. The clip, unearthed from a Turning Point USA archive and verified by the network’s fact-checkers, shows Kirk onstage in Atlanta, embracing 19-year-old Aaliyah Thompson—a rising star in the Black conservative movement—amid thunderous applause, as he announces a $50,000 scholarship in her name for “unbreakable spirits like hers.” Jones’ segment, aired September 12 amid national mourning for Kirk’s assassination, had framed the 31-year-old Turning Point co-founder as a “grifter who weaponized race for clicks,” but the video’s release on September 14—viewed 2.5 million times on Fox’s platforms by Friday—has ignited a backlash that has CNN’s ratings in freefall and affiliates distancing themselves from the narrative.

Kirk’s death on September 10—a single gunshot to the neck from suspect Tyler Robinson during a Utah Valley University rally on transgender policies—has polarized the media landscape like few events before. The Turning Point USA co-founder, whose “Prove Me Wrong” debates galvanized millions of young conservatives against “woke indoctrination,” collapsed before 2,000 students, dying en route to the hospital and leaving behind wife Erika and two toddlers. Vigils drew 12,000 in Phoenix, with congressional tributes and a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. Yet in the immediate aftermath, progressive voices like Jones—a former Obama advisor and CNN contributor whose Redefining America series spotlights racial equity—pivoted to critique. On CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, Jones declared: “Kirk wasn’t a unifier—he was a race-baiter, turning every campus clash into a viral grievance for his MAGA machine. His rhetoric sowed division; now a family reaps the whirlwind.” The segment, viewed 1.8 million times, drew applause from co-guests but swift rebuttals from Kirk’s allies, including Sen. Ted Cruz: “Van Jones’ venom dishonors a patriot—smear while the grave’s fresh?”

Enter the footage: a 4-minute reel from Kirk’s March 2023 “American Comeback Tour” stop at Morehouse College, Atlanta’s historically Black institution. Captured by Turning Point cameras and archived on a private server, it shows Kirk yielding the mic to Thompson, then a freshman navigating BLM riots’ aftermath. “Aaliyah’s story? It’s America’s story,” Kirk says, his voice steady as he recounts her escape from a “looted family business” during 2020 unrest. “She didn’t burn it down—she built back better, with faith and fire.” He hands her a check for $50,000—the inaugural “Kirk Scholarship for Urban Leaders”—as the crowd of 1,500 erupts, Thompson tearfully hugging him: “You lifted me when the world tore me down—thank you for seeing my spirit unbroken.” The clip, narrated by Fox’s Jesse Watters on September 14’s The Five, contrasts Jones’ portrait: “This is the Charlie Kirk CNN ignored—a mentor to Black youth, not a monster.” Watters replayed it thrice, ratings spiking 22 percent to 4.1 million viewers.

The backfire was instantaneous and incendiary. X exploded with #CNNKirkSmear, amassing 2.8 million posts by Friday—clips splicing Jones’ segment with Thompson’s embrace, captioned “The footage they buried.” Turning Point chapters mobilized: 45,000 signatures on a Change.org petition demanding Jones’ CNN ouster, while affiliates like Sinclair—owners of 193 stations—pre-empted CNN feeds in conservative markets, airing Fox reruns instead. CNN’s prime-time viewership dipped 18 percent week-over-week to 650,000, per Nielsen—its lowest since 2022 midterms—while The Five surged 15 percent. Jones, 55 and a CNN staple since 2017, defended on September 15’s NewsNight: “My words honored the victims of Kirk’s division—thousands of trans kids bullied by his tours. The clip? Selective editing; he still peddled grievance.” Yet backlash crested: Whoopi Goldberg on The View distanced: “Van’s passion’s real, but timing’s tragic—mourn first, critique later.” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a Jones ally, tweeted: “Debate legacies with dignity—Jones crossed a line.” CNN, facing advertiser pullouts from Procter & Gamble, issued a vague note: “We condemn violence; our analysts reflect diverse views.”

Thompson, now 21 and a Turning Point ambassador, broke her silence September 16 on Fox & Friends: “Charlie saw my pain—riots destroyed my dad’s store, but he funded my rebuild. Van Jones calls that ‘baiting’? It’s blindness.” Her testimony, viewed 1.9 million times, amplified the reversal: Kirk’s 2023 tour donated $1.2 million to Black-led initiatives, per TPUSA ledgers, countering Jones’ “grifter” tag. Erika Kirk, 36 and resolute, joined: “Charlie mentored across divides—CNN’s smear mocks that, and our loss.” Her $2.4 million scholarship fund swelled 25 percent post-clip, with Turning Point’s Tyler O’Neil vowing: “This footage? Ammo against media myths.”

Jones’ history amplifies the sting: His 2018 CNN exit amid Trump “white supremacist” flap, 2020’s No Kings Act push for racial justice, and 2024’s Redefining America series critiquing “MAGA grievance.” Yet post-Kirk, his takes landed raw: a September 11 Bluesky thread tying the shooting to “right-wing radicalization,” deleted amid doxxing. Subscribers to his Messy podcast dipped 12 percent, per Chartable, while #FireVanJones hit 800,000 posts. CNN brass, eyeing a 2026 overhaul, weighs his future: “Valued voice, but recalibrating,” a source told Variety.

The reversal exposes media’s post-Kirk perils: CNN’s prime-time, down 18 percent YOY, clashes with Fox’s 15 percent surge. Affiliates like Sinclair pre-empt CNN in red states, airing Fox tributes. For Erika Kirk, the clip kindles light: “Charlie’s truth endures—beyond smears.” In cable’s coliseum, Jones’ jab recoiled—a soundbite’s sting, self-inflicted. The footage? Not buried, but blazing—truth’s unfiltered reel in a scripted storm.