Susan Sarandon Endorses Jill Stein For President
Former Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon has officially endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein for U.S. President.
An Academy Award winner for her role in Dead Man Walking, Sarandon, 70, is or was a friend of Hillary Clinton over the years but told Stephen Colbert on nationwide TV last spring that she “broke up” with Clinton over her vote in favor of the Iraq War.
A self-described environmentalist and feminist, Sarandon also slammed Democrat presidential nominee Clinton for supporting fracking during her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State and for favoring big business. She also claimed that Clinton opposed the $15 minimum wage until the political winds changed. “I don’t trust her,” Sarandon reaffirmed at the time.
No fan of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump either, the actress/progressive activist shocked an MSNBC host last March when she observed that “Some people feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately if he gets in then things will really, you know, explode.”
She also revealed to Colbert that “I’m more afraid of, actually, Hillary Clinton’s war record and her hawkishness than I am of building a wall, but that doesn’t mean that I would vote for Trump.”
In a letter posted on Jill Stein’s website, Sarandon listed 11 issues with which she disagrees with Hillary Clinton (including the Democrat’s support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership), and then explained why she is throwing her endorsement to the Greens.
“I’m therefore very happy to endorse Jill Stein for the presidency because she does stand for everything I believe in. It’s clear a third party is necessary and viable at this time. And this is the first step in accomplishing this end. Fear of Donald Trump is not enough for me to support Clinton, with her record of corruption. Now that Trump is self-destructing, I feel even those in swing states have the opportunity to vote their conscience.”
Susan Sarandon endorses Jill Stein: "Fear of Donald Trump is not enough for me to support Clinton" https://t.co/uqIjMG9aju pic.twitter.com/taidfggmqT
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 2, 2016
It’s left unexplained how Sarandon reached the conclusion that Trump is self-destructing in that support for the New York real estate mogul and first-time candidate appears to be surging, assuming current polling data is accurate.
Jill Stein previously described Hillary Clinton as a warmongering corporatist who could drag the country into a confrontation with Russia and insisted that Clinton has already done some of the things that Donald Trump says he’s going to do if elected president.
Stein, 66, is a medical doctor who declared in recent interviews that “politics is the mother of all illnesses” and that’s why she now practices what she calls political medicine. Stein was the Green Party standard-bearer in 2012 and also unsuccessfully ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010.
With a social justice focus on climate change and eradicating poverty, the far-left Green Party is seen as a natural home for some Bernie Sanders-supporting progressives — i.e., the #BernieOrBust or #NeverHillary cohort which includes Susan Sarandon that used to #FeelTheBern — who are fundamentally unenthused about and feel disenfranchised over Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. Stein has been actively embracing the Sanders cohort among those disillusioned with the Vermont senator’s endorsement of Clinton.
Dr. Stein has consistently rejected the premise that for liberals, Hillary Clinton is a lesser of two evils and that a vote for a third party such as the Greens helps Donald Trump.
Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon endorses Jill Stein https://t.co/FVdnimv5Dw pic.twitter.com/Vyf53WF6Ef
— The Hill (@thehill) November 1, 2016
“The Thelma & Louise star was present at the Democratic National Convention in July to see Sanders speak, but immediately reported that she was ‘out’ after an email leak showed some party leaders trying to undermine Sanders’ campaign,” the New York Daily News explained.
Watch a BBC interview with Jill Stein in which she rejects the lesser-of-two-evils argument or that a vote for Stein translates into a vote for Trump. “The DNC is so corrupt that it’s not worthy of our vote,” she said, adding that, “I don’t vote with my vagina.”
Are you surprised that Susan Sarandon, unlike many of her Hollywood contemporaries, has endorsed Jill Stein rather than Hillary Clinton?
[Featured Image by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Images]
