In an interview with CNN broadcast on Saturday, actress and activist Jane Fonda shared her thoughts on President Donald Trump and Democratic Party politics.
Fonda said that she does not hate the president, while criticizing him for refusing to acknowledge climate science.
“I don’t hate him. I feel sad for him,” she said.
As CNN notes, Fonda has been arrested multiple times over the last two months for protesting to warn the public about the climate crisis. Even the president weighed in on Fonda’s activism, telling his rally audience that the actress “always has the handcuffs on her.”
When Trump became president, Fonda said, she wanted to introduce him to “a lot of very beautiful women who are very, very smart about climate,” hoping they would be able to persuade him to take action to address the issue.
She also revealed that she spoke with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, White House advisers and members of the Trump family, but never heard back from them afterward.
Not even an attractive activist like Pamela Anderson, Fonda suggested, could help Trump acknowledge the reality of climate change, because he is dedicated to serving the interests of the fossil fuel industry.
“He’s a petroleum president… they are so in bed with the fossil fuel industry that there’s nothing that even Pamela Anderson could get out of Donald Trump,” the actress said.
Fonda also touched upon former President Barack Obama’s recent comments about the Democratic primary race. Obama warned Democrats against moving left , claiming that such an approach to politics could alienate voters, and lead to the party losing against Trump.
The former commander-in-chief criticized what he described as the “activist wing” of the Democratic Party, arguing that Democrats running for president should not think the American people will agree with their agenda and vote for them just because they are being “bold and creative.”
Fonda disagrees with Obama’s suggestion and believes Democrats should avoid nominating a more moderate candidate, one like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton’s ideas and policies, Fonda suggested, did not resonate with working class voters in the Midwest, and “bold ideas” are the answer.
“Hillary Clinton didn’t have an answer for the people that are so hurting in the middle of the country,” the actress said.
“I was all over the middle of the country before the election, and there was no noise from Hillary,” she added, describing Clinton’s nomination as a “big mistake.”
Activists and even some lawmakers disagreed with Obama’s suggestion as well.
Notably, according to Common Dreams , Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that progressives are not moving the Democratic Party “too far” left but simply bringing it home, embracing New Deal policies championed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
