Howard Dean and Van Jones

On FOX News Sunday, former DNC chairman Howard Dean touted Van Jones' qualifications and expressed regret that Jones resigned as Obama's "green jobs" czar. Then, he gave an implausible explanation for how Van Jones' name ended up on that 9/11 truther petition.



Transcript

HOWARD DEAN: I know this guy, and I just talked to him this so I'd like to weigh in after John [Podesta] does.

CHRIS WALLACE: Go ahead.

DEAN: I was just gonna say this guy's a Yale-educated lawyer. He's a best-selling author about his specialty. I think he was brought down. I think it's too bad. Washington's a tough place that way, and I think it's a loss for the country.

WALLACE: Governor, how about the fact that he had made a series of statements and had signed this petition in 2004 indicating, suggesting that the government might have had some role or some complicity in 9/11?

DEAN: Well, he was told by the people waving those clipboards around that he was signing something else. So, that's too bad. Look, all of us campaigning for office have had people throw clipboards in front of our face and ask us to sign. He learned the hard way. He ought not to do that, but I don't think he really thinks the government had anything to do with causing 9/11.

That's ridiculous.

Jones signed that petition accidentally. He ws duped into believing he was signing "something else"?

Yeah, right.

What "else"?

That's a stunningly lame excuse.

A Yale-educated professor attaches his name to someone waving a clipboard at him.

Someone throws a clipboard with a petition in front of Jones' face and he signs it without reading it?

No way.

Are we to believe Jones would be that careless regarding his professional reputation?

Dean says, "I don't think he really thinks the government had anything to do with causing 9/11."

He can think whatever he wants. What Dean thinks isn't the point. It's what Jones thinks.

I don't buy that Yale-educated professor, best-selling author Jones didn't know what he was signing.

I do think he really thinks the Bush administration had something to do with causing 9/11. It certainly would be consistent with his other extremist, twisted views.

I expect Jones to use all this attention and try to cash in on it with a vengeance. He'll probably be hitting the Lefty lecture circuit, stepping up his speaking appearances.

The martyr, victim of a vast Right-wing conspiracy, tells all.

Cha-ching!