Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Says Hillary Clinton Could Be Worse Than Donald Trump
Trump "says very scary things," Clinton does them.
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein says she believes presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could be worse than presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"Trump says very scary things—deporting immigrants, massive militarism and, you know, ignoring the climate," Stein explained on Democracy Now. "Well, Hillary, unfortunately, has a track record for doing all of those things. Hillary has supported the deportations of immigrants, opposed the refugees—women and children coming from Honduras, whose refugee crisis she was very much responsible for by giving a thumbs-up to this corporate coup in Honduras that has created the violence from which those refugees are fleeing. She basically said, 'No, bar the gates, send them back.' You know, so we see these draconian things that Donald Trump is talking about, we actually see Hillary Clinton doing."
Clinton admitted in 2014 to using her power as Secretary of State to prevent Honduras President Manuel Zelaya from returning to office after he was overthrown in a coup.
Stein also brought up Clinton's militarism. "And it's not only the militarism that Trump talks about, it's Hillary's massive record of militarism," she continued.
"The rush into Libya, which was really—you know, she was the prime mover behind that campaign, which the military advisers were largely against; her approval for the war in Iraq and so on; you know, her threat to bomb Iran; and, you know, she—and her demonization of Russia and China, and the pivot against China. We are rushing towards war with Hillary Clinton, who has a track record," Stein said.
President Obama announced an "Asia pivot" in 2011. By 2015 the Obama administration said it was frustrated and confused by China taking a more confrontational stance against the U.S.
Stein also noted that while Trump "talks terrible about climate change," he "does believe in climate change" in Ireland, where the Trump Organization filed for a permit to build a sea wall to protect one of its golf courses. She pointed to Clinton's support of international fracking while secretary of state as a reason she believes Clinton could be worse on climate. Stein should read Ronald Bailey's "Top 5 Lies About Fracking."
Stein was also asked what she thought Bernie Sanders should say when he meets with Obama (the two met the day she was interviewed). "I don't think President Obama is going to change his tune because of something that Bernie Sanders says to him," she said. "I think what's really important—you know, in the words of Frederick Douglass, 'Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will.'"
Stein called on Democracy Now listeners not to be "a victim of this propaganda campaign" aimed to discourage third party voters. Asked about criticism that third party candidates like her (Stein is not yet officially the nominee of the Green Party, which holds its convention in Houston in early August) act as "spoilers," Stein rejected the framing.
"This politics of fear has actually delivered everything we were afraid of," Stein said. "All the reasons you were told you had to vote for the lesser evil—because you didn't want the massive Wall Street bailouts, the offshoring of our jobs, the meltdown of the climate, the endless expanding wars, the attack on immigrants—all that, we've gotten by the droves, because we allowed ourselves to be silenced."