CNN commentator Van Jones did something unusual during coverage of the rescheduled White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

He gave President Trump credit before promptly returning to familiar cable news form and tearing into the president’s speech.

The dinner had been moved from its original April 25 date after a gunman stormed the security perimeter and fired a shot in an attempt to assassinate Trump.

That ugly backdrop made the president’s decision to attend the media gala more notable than the usual Beltway cocktail circuit chatter.

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CNN anchor John Berman explained that the evening’s schedule had changed.

The awards for journalists would come before Trump spoke, meaning the president would have to sit through honors given to reporters who often cover him with all the warmth of an IRS audit.

“The president was going to speak first, then the awards. So, he could have left, in theory, if he wanted to,” Berman said before turning to Jones for analysis.

Berman added, “This time, he’s going to have to sit through and watch awards being given to reporters who report on him, maybe in ways he doesn’t like. One wonders how he might feel about that.”

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Jones responded with a rare moment of praise for Trump, acknowledging that the president was not ducking the room or heading for the exit. For once, even a CNN panel had to admit the obvious.

“You really do have to give President Trump credit tonight,” Jones said.

“I mean, we were saying he was going to basically do his thing and run away.”

“He’s not running away,” Jones added.

“He’s going to be there. And maybe someone will have the courage to speak up [against him]. Maybe they won’t. But he’s putting himself in harm’s way in that regard.”

That was about as generous as the moment was going to get.

After Trump delivered his remarks, which included jabs at the press and candid comments about his relationship with the media, Jones shifted hard into criticism.

“I think the worst thing you can say is that it just wasn’t funny at all,” Jones said.

“It just wasn’t funny. It was mean and small. But you can be mean and small and funny. This was mean and small and not funny.”

Jones argued that Trump missed a chance to speak to Americans facing real problems.

His complaint was that the president focused too much on himself and his adversaries rather than kitchen table issues.

“And he didn’t talk about any American besides himself and his enemies,” Jones continued.

“There are people at home who can’t figure out how to pay for gas. There are people at home who worry about their nephew who’s serving overseas.”

“There’s people at home who have real problems, who would love to see somebody reflect their reality and maybe make fun of some of their enemies, some of their problems. He missed the entire opportunity to talk to those people.”

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Of course, the idea that the White House press dinner is suddenly sacred ground for working class policy talk may surprise Americans who know it mostly as a room full of journalists, celebrities, consultants and politicians congratulating one another.

Still, Jones framed the speech as a squandered opportunity.

The moment also came after Jones recently appeared to push back against the far left activists gaining influence inside his own party.

The longtime progressive Democrat warned that some ideas being packaged as progressivism are doing damage to Democrats.

Jones condemned Democratic Socialists of America aligned positions on Hamas, policing, prisons and borders.

“Supporting Hamas is not progressive. ‘No police, no prisons, no borders’ is not progressive. Celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians is not progressive. These ideas are REGRESSIVE,” Jones said.

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That admission marked another notable break from the activist fringe, even if Jones remains firmly on the left.

It also showed the growing panic among Democrats who can see the party’s radical wing turning off voters outside the faculty lounge and protest encampment circuit.

So the evening delivered a strange split screen. Jones praised Trump for showing up and sitting through a room full of media elites, then blasted him for being, in his view, too harsh and not funny enough.

For Trump supporters, the spectacle likely looked simpler.

The president walked into hostile territory, took the heat, fired back at the press, and left CNN debating whether he deserved credit or condemnation.

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