Green Party’s Jill Stein Slams Bernie Sanders for Endorsing Hillary Clinton
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Tuesday in a series of brutal tweets.
“If you don’t want to vote for a war monger or racist billionaire, there are more options,” Stein tweeted right before Sanders announced his endorsement of Clinton in New Hampshire. “The political revolution will keep going.”
Stein, who is Jewish like Sanders, has been highly critical of Clinton, deeming her too hawkish, as well as responsible for what she considered a “rigged” Democratic primary election. Following the announcement by FBI Director James Comey that Clinton could not be indicted for her private email server through which she is now known to have unsecurely sent classified information, Stein pushed for Clinton’s prosecution in a statement, saying “all the elements necessary to prove a felony violation were found by the FBI investigation.”
Many Berning hearts are breaking right now. ?
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) July 12, 2016
“Many Berning hearts are breaking right now,” she tweeted.
Stein, who is considered to have too small of a following to be included in most major polls, trailed the major party candidates and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson with 4 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The Stein campaign said in a statement Saturday that it has repeatedly approached the Sanders campaign about collaborating on a political movement.
As Sanders endorsed Clinton, Stein appealed to Sanders to join forces in a lefty push.
“Everything is on the table. If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green Party,” Stein tweeted. “He could lead the ticket and build a political movement.”
In his endorsement, Sanders promised that Clinton understood what is needed to lead the country, including on issues central to Sanders’ campaign like economic inequality.
“This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face,” Sanders said. “And there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that.”
The Sanders campaign won several concessions from Clinton in the draft of the 2016 Democratic party platform this past weekend, including planks recognizing a $15 minimum wage, the abolition of the death penalty, and a pathway for the legalization of marijuana. The party platform is non-binding, and is pending ratification at the Democratic National Convention at the end of July, but the inclusion of several of Sanders’ issues shows his campaign has forced Clinton to address the desires of her party’s progressive wing.
For her part, Clinton said she remains open to his advice if she becomes president.
“You will always have a seat at the table when I am in the White House,” she said.
Contact Drew Gerber at [email protected] or on Twitter, @dagerber
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO