CNN's Van Jones reveals private message from Charlie Kirk one day before he was assassinated

CNN liberal commentator Van Jones revealed that conservative activist Charlie Kirk reached out to him with a private message just one day before Kirk was assassinated.

In the message, Kirk invited him to have a public conversation about crime and race in the aftermath of the heated debate between the two over the killing of a Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska.

Jones said he did not see the message until after Kirk was killed. 

“Hey Van, I mean it, I’d love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race. I would be a gentleman as I know you would be as well. We can disagree about the issues agreeably.”

Jones shared his response to the message on Instagram.

“When our public dispute started going sideways, what’s Kirk’s response? He pushed for more civility, not more stridency or venom," he said. “For all our differences, neither Charlie nor I ever wanted to see the other person harmed or silenced.”

On Substack, Jones wrote about the message as well. 

"I've taken issue with many of those words — sometimes strongly — but never his right to speak them. Never his right to express those views and then go home to his family. That is a sacred American value," he wrote on Friday.