Left-wing Democratic activist and political commentator Van Jones once served as an environmental adviser to President Barack Obama.

However, Jones recently had some very public criticism for the political class to which his former boss belongs. 

Jones attributes Trump's win to "something really going wrong" for voters

According to the New York Post, Jones aired his thoughts while participating in a panel at the New York Times DealBook summit.

He at one point told Republican panel members Jason Miller and Kellyanne Conway that voters backed President-elect Donald Trump because "something is off."

"There's something really going wrong for real everyday working folks in this country, and I'm not sure either party has an answer yet," he said.

"We know how to beat each other up when the other one is in power, but can we solve any of these problems?" Jones went on to ask.

"Digital is the new door-knocking"

Jones went on to acknowledge that the Democratic Party has lost ground when it comes to reaching voters, saying, "My perspective doesn’t come from the focus groups, it doesn’t come from sitting on CNN next to my beloved Anderson Cooper."

"I was on the ground supporting folks in Philadelphia trying to get folks to vote, I was trying to help Jewish voters get to the polls in the Philly suburbs, and I'm telling you, we are way off, the entire political class is way off," he recalled.

"First of all, digital is the new door-knocking. You've got to understand that," the left-wing commentator emphasized.

"We were laughing our butts off at Donald Trump for suspending his door-knocking campaign and letting [conservative activist] Charlie Kirk and [Tesla CEO] Elon [Musk] do a bunch of stuff online. We said, 'These guys are idiots! These guys are stupid!'" he admitted.

"Then you start knocking on these doors … you know what people come to the door with? Their phone in their hand," he added.

"Donald Trump understood that and we didn't"

"They’re in a 24-hour digital surround sound that has nothing to do with CNN, has nothing to do with any of the stuff that we do," he noted.

"I'm telling you guys, the mainstream has become fringe and the fringe has become mainstream. There are platforms, there are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we’re on cable news getting 1 or 2 million, and so there is a whole world out there," Jones stressed.