[Cooper:] A conservative activist named James O'Keefe has released another selectively edited tape today this time targeting CNN Political Commentator Van Jones. Van is going to weight in on it for the first time in a moment. But first, here's what O'Keefe chose to publish from the secretly recorded conversation.
[Unidentified Male:] Hey, man. We met in Palm Springs a few years back.
[Van Jones, Cnn Political Commentator:] Hey good to see you man, you good?
[Unidentified Male:] Yes. How you been?
[Jones:] I'm good.
[Unidentified Male:] What are you doing? What do you think is going to happen this week with the whole Russia thing?
[Jones:] The Russia thing is just a big nothing burger.
[Unidentified Male:] Really? You don't think that's
[Cooper:] And Van Jones joins us now. So just explain what happened here. Who were you talking to? Where were you? What was the context?
[Jones:] OK. I was standing outside the bureau in Los Angeles, you know, and I'll talk to anybody. I don't care you're a janitor, homeless person, police officer, pop star, I talk anybody. A guy comes up and he starts engage me in conversation. I'll talk to anybody and he starts asking these questions around what's going on in American politics. As you know, I have been beating the drum about progressives going so far over board on Russia. The news agency should be going in on Russia. Because any time you have the president of the United States under investigation by the FBI that is a news story. But Progressives have to be very careful that we don't put all our eggs in that basket because the chances of this cowardly Republican Party actually impeaching and then removing a president, something that has never happened, I think it's very, very slight. And so, I was about to go into that and says there's nothing you can do, and then a bunch of my guys from CNN came out we started talking. So he took that little bit thing and made it seem like I was out here saying that there's nothing wrong that Donald Trump has been doing. This guy is a hoaxster, he's a fraudster, he's been convicted, he's
[Cooper:] So when on the tape you say that the Russia investigation was a big nothing burger what did you mean?
[Jones:] I meant for Progressives to keep jumping up and down about this doesn't make a lot of sense because you've got a bunch of us acting as if this guy is going to be impeached tomorrow. That Trump is going to be impeached and he's going to be gone. Listen, from a political point of view, if you're looking honestly, you do not have the ability to both impeach and remove this guy. And from political point of view, it's a nothing burger. You've got to be focused on real stuff, like jobs, health care, addiction, and stay focus on the substantive issues
[Cooper:] Which you say we're not talking enough about.
[Jones:] No. You're not you're talking about stuff that is not going to register for ordinary people, it's not for ordinary people. Real people are going to be worried about jobs, health care, addiction, that kind of stuff. We've got to stay focused on that. And that's whereas about to go, but I don't know this guy and then my guys come up from CNN whom I love at the bureau and we start talking. So he took that little clip and he puts it out there. But here's the reality. You would have the worst thing isn't that the guy did the little hoaxster thing. This guy is a hoaxster, he's a fraudster. The worst thing is that the Trump White House then elevated it. So you've got the Trump White House elevating a guy who is a known fraudster.
[Cooper:] But Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, you know, she didn't know if it was true or not but urged everyone to look at it.
[Jones:] That's not good. Let me today. You always have fraud out there putting out selectively edit, look, if you're still falling for selectively edited videotape in 2017, you haven't been paying attention. But for the White House to fall for it and promote it, that's what really is terrible.
[Cooper:] You said that too many Democrats see the Russian controversies is a kind of a magical get out of jail free card, meaning that they think the president is somehow going to be impeached.
[Jones:] Listen, we have a bunch of problems in our party. And rather than dealing with those problems in a serious way, rather than getting back to talking about jobs, backs to talking about the real pain at the bottom here in our country, you've got a lot of people just going in loops and cycles. I'm not talking about news people. We got to cover this news. I'm talking about Progressive activists who talk about Russia all day and don't talk about jobs any day. That has got to stop. And if you think that just talking about Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia is going to be a way to get this guy impeached or remove or win an election. I think you are wrong and I think we need to get back to substantive stuff for ordinary people, not only the stuff that the news media are excited about.
[Cooper:] Van, thank you very much. You can read Van's full editorial in the tape and the nothing burger comment at cnn.com.
[Jones:] Much ado about nothing burger.
[Cooper:] All right. Thanks Van. Just ahead, a story breaking tonight in "The Wall Street Journal" with new reporting on hacked Clinton emails Republican operative and Michael Flynn, the correspondent who got the story joins us next.