Stevens ‘flushed herself down the toilet’: Van Jones

Liberal commentator Van Jones on Sunday described Rep. Haley Stevens’s (R-Mich.) recent endorsement of GOP Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers as flushing “herself down the toilet.”

During a panel on CNN on Sunday night, Jones praised Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s message discipline in the wake of Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers.

“You know, Abdul, when given the opportunity to follow this whole conversation down a rabbit hole, had incredible message discipline today, and kept talking about Michigan voters. When Haley was talking about Michigan voters, she had moral authority. She starts talking about herself, she loses moral authority,” Jones said on “Anderson Cooper 360.”

“He could have done the same thing and gotten personal. He didn’t. Abdul said, ‘I don’t want to talk about this woman at all. I want to talk about people 15 minutes from here.’ Now listen, I think his message has been too narrow, and he’s left out too many people. But he has shown a level of discipline on this campaign, and Haley just flushed herself down the toilet,” Jones added.

On Sunday, El-Sayed brushed off Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers, stating it didn’t carry weight and that he was focused on Michigan’s issues.

“At the end of the day, I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” El-Sayed told reporters Sunday in Detroit.

“This is a state of 10 million people who deserve a lot better from the government. I’m a lot more focused on the 9,999,998 that are not the ones you guys are talking about,” he said.

Stevens on Sunday endorsed Rogers to serve in the Senate over El-Sayed, who defeated Stevens in a tense primary battle this summer. Her announcement followed days of feuding between herself and El-Sayed and came just two days before the midterm elections.

Stevens said she would appear last weekend alongside El-Sayed for the first time since their primary earlier this year, but she went after him for his response to a controversial anti-Israel ad that seemed to connect the country to high grocery prices in the U.S.

El-Sayed then told Stevens to avoid his campaign events and disinvited her from a planned appearance on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. El-Sayed also fired back at Stevens after she expected him to apologize due to his remarks on Israel.

The Hill has reached out to Stevens’s office for comment.