Van Jones Admits: I Kept Quiet During Oil Spill Because Barack Obama Was President

Van Jones said that he and environmentalists stayed quiet during the BP oil disaster in 2010 because Barack Obama was president -- and admitted he would have "been out there with a sign protesting" had George W. Bush or John McCain been occupying the White House.

Jones, Obama's former green energy adviser, made the comments during a recent interview on C-SPAN's Book TV:

"I'm critical of myself, first, and the environmentalists. When the oil spill that happened in the spring of 2010, there was another moment to say, 'Hold on a second, let's re-look at energy policy in America. Should we be subsidizing companies that are risking our health immediately and in the long-term?' We didn't do it. You've never seen the environmental movement more quiet during an oil spill. I guarantee you, if John McCain had been president, with that oil spill, or George Bush had been president with that oil spill, I'd have been out there with a sign protesting. I didn't, because of who the president was. Well, that's a bad, uh, uh...that's not good for the earth, it's not good for the cause, it's probably not good for the president. It's certainly not the way we should conduct ourselves. And so, I'm very tough on progressive movements and leaders, including myself, who did not stand on principle, based on who we looked across and saw as president."