Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein on Monday refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” but was more than willing to apply that label to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden.
Stein, 74, twisted his body during the performance. “Media Unfiltered” She tried to explain a “clear strategy” to not designate Putin a war criminal, apparently unaware that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest.
The long-time White House hopeful claimed that in her “first statements on the Ukraine war” she “condemned” Russian aggression as a criminal act, but when pressed by host Mehdi Hasan, she hesitated to call Putin himself a war criminal.
“What we have said about President Putin is that his invasion of Ukraine is criminal. It's a criminal, murderous war,” Stein said.
Hasan asked: “Is he a war criminal who should be put on trial?”
“Well, implicitly, implicitly,” Stein replied, refusing to say it directly.
Hasan said Stein's reluctance to “say very simple things” about the Russian dictator “is why people are suspicious of you and of Russia.”
Stein has long been accused of being a puppet of Putin.
a Senate Inquiry iAn investigation into possible collusion between Stein and the Kremlin found that the Green Party candidate in the 2016 presidential election benefited from a favorable advertising campaign by the Internet Research Agency, a notorious Russian troll site.
“Why is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal but Vladimir Putin is not?” asked Hasan, an outspoken critic of Israel's war against Hamas.
Stein responded: “As John F. Kennedy said, we must not negotiate out of fear, and we must not be afraid to negotiate.”
“So if you want to be an effective world leader, you can't start by badmouthing and naming people,” she said.
The former MSNBC host pressed her further, saying, “So how is President Stein going to negotiate with Israel if you've called Netanyahu a war criminal?”
She replied: “Yes, because he is clearly a war criminal.”
When Hasan pointed out that her response suggested Putin was “clearly not a war criminal,” Stein countered: “Well, in other words, there are no International Criminal Court decisions regarding the Russian president.”
Stein's response suggested she was unaware that The Hague had issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine.
Her response also stated that the I.C.C. No arrest warrant has been issued for Netanyahu This is despite the agency's chief prosecutor having filed an application.
“We support that war. We support Netanyahu. He is our dog in this fight,” Stein said after being criticized for Hasan's gaffe.
“Either you're a war criminal or you're not,” Hasan pressed. “Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?”
“In a word, yes,” Stein replied, still refusing to use the word.
“No world leader starts a conversation by calling someone a war criminal,” she added.
When Hasan asked why he was criticizing President Biden and Netanyahu, Stein said it was because “we have a clear strategy.”
“That makes absolutely no sense to me,” Hasan retorted bluntly.
Stein has a national approval rating of less than 1%, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, but her left-leaning positions could draw at least some votes away from Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Washington Post has reached out to Stein's campaign for comment.
