CNN analyst Van Jones on Sunday warned Democrats not to take the black vote for granted in this year’s presidential election, arguing that President Trump’s outreach to black voters could be enough to “put him in the winner’s column.”

Speaking with S.E. Cupp on “Unfiltered,” Mr. Jones, a former Obama adviser, said Mr. Trump achieving record low unemployment for blacks, passing criminal justice reform and emphasizing school choice and funding for historically black colleges are all issues that could help him win reelection with help from the black vote.

“My warning for the Democrats is, do not take the black vote for granted in this election,” Mr. Jones said. “And don’t pick somebody who’s not going to appeal to black people because you’re going to really be hurting the cause.

“If you’re an African-American voter, you understand,” he said. “I’m supposed to stand in a five-hour-long line in the freezing cold in Michigan so the Democrats can win ― and then never speak to me again for four years.

“It’s gotten old and tired,” he continued. “The other thing that happens within our party is we’ll spend a billion dollars on an election and 97% of the campaign dollars go to white male-owned firms. So again, what is it that we’re getting out of this relationship? I think that it can strengthen the African-American community overall having the competition between the two parties. For a long time, the black vote was taken for granted by Democrats and written off by Republicans. That’s not happening this year.”

Mr. Jones went on to argue that the Democrats have been playing “fantasy football politics” for the past three years with their investigations instead of working on their messaging.

“I would accuse my party at this point of having engaged in three years of fantasy football politics where we said, ‘OK, don’t worry. Trump is never going to be seated because the Electoral College will not seat him.’ Remember that?” he said. “Don’t worry, Bob Mueller is going to take him out of that White House in handcuffs. Remember that? Don’t worry, he’s going be impeached and removed. Now, after three years of all of that fantasy football, guess what we have? Trump is still in the White House and we still don’t have a candidate.”

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