Green Party candidate Jill Stein is facing backlash after a video went viral in which she refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
In an interview released by Zeteo on Monday, host Mehdi Hasan grilled Stein on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in which tens of thousands of Ukrainians have died, before alleging that she has not called out the Russian president for attacks on civilians.
“We looked at your social media and you haven’t done that many posts specifically calling out Russian attacks on civilian areas,” Hasan said. “You haven’t called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, but you have called Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal.”
“No, actually we did in my very first remarks about the Ukraine war,” Stein protested.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks during a rally at Union Park in Chicago on August 21, 2024. Stein is under fire after she refused to call Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
Alex Brandon/AP
Last month, Stein tweeted: “@netanyahu we demand that you immediately RESIGN as Prime Minister and surrender yourself to authorities. Congress may clap for war criminals, but we the people will bring you to justice.”
Hasan asked the Green Party candidate if she thought Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal. “Yes,” Stein replied. “In so many words, yes, we have said as much,” she added, before Hasan asked her point blank: “Is Putin a war criminal?”
“So, what we said about Putin was that his invasion of Ukraine is criminal. It’s a criminal and murderous war,” Stein responded.
“And he’s a war criminal who should be on trial?” Hasan hit back.
“Well, by implication, by implication,” Stein said.
Hasan later asked Stein why she had labeled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, but not Putin.
“Well, as John F. Kennedy said, we must not negotiate out of fear and we must not fear to negotiate,” she replied. “So, if you want to be an effective world leader, you don’t start by name-calling and hurling epithets.”
“So, how will President Stein negotiate with Israel then if you’ve called Netanyahu a war criminal?” Hasan asked in response.
“Well, because he very clearly is a war criminal,” Stein said, prompting Hasan to ask: “So Putin clearly isn’t a war criminal?”
“Well, we don’t have a decision—put it this way—by the International Criminal Court,” Stein said.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Putin, alleging that he is responsible for war crimes. No such warrant has been issued for Netanyahu, whose war on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians. However, the chief prosecutor of the ICC has applied for an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
“There’s an arrest warrant for Putin and there isn’t an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, so why is Putin not a war criminal, but Netanyahu is?” Hasan asked.
“Yeah. Well, let me say this. We are sponsoring that war. We are sponsoring Netanyahu,” Stein responded. “He is our dog in this fight. That is why we have a responsibility to pull him back.”
“With Russia it’s far more complicated,” she later added.
But Hasan wasn’t satisfied with her answer.
“Either you’re a war criminal or you’re not. Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?” he asked again.
“In so many words, yes he is,” Stein said. “If you want to pull him back, if you are a world leader, you don’t begin your conversation by calling someone a war criminal.”
She added that she has described Netanyahu as a war criminal because there is a “clear strategy and we have very strong support across the world.”
A video of the interview posted to Hasan’s X account has been viewed over 600,000 times.
Me: “Vladimir Putin is a war criminal in your view? And Assad is a war criminal?”
Jill Stein: “Uh, yes. In so many words.”
Me: “What does that mean, ‘in so many words’?”My exchange with the Green Party candidate on war crimes.
Full interview: https://t.co/czLGXpz2tu pic.twitter.com/cedmDpbWbH
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 16, 2024
Newsweek has contacted the Stein campaign for comment.
In December 2015, Stein was photographed sitting at Putin’s table at a dinner in Moscow in celebration of the Russian state television channel RT’s 10th anniversary. The channel has been banned in several countries for spreading Russian propaganda since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s short-lived national security adviser, and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, were also at the table, among others. The event was held the year after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region.
A campaign spokesperson previously told Newsweek that Stein “attended at her own expense to spread a message of peace and diplomacy” and gave a speech in Moscow “in which she criticized the excessive militarism of both Vladimir Putin and U.S. leaders.”
They added: “The Senate Intelligence Committee later investigated the trip and found no wrongdoing whatsoever. Dr. Stein’s commitment to diplomacy is more needed than ever and stands in stark contrast to the two warmongering ruling parties, which are driving us toward World War III and draining resources urgently needed here at home.”
Speaking to The Intercept in 2017, Stein described claims that the dinner was an “intimate roundtable” as “mythology.” She added that Putin and his associates “weren’t at the table for very long.” Stein said that “nobody introduced anybody to anybody” and that she “didn’t hear any words exchanged between English speakers and Russians” because of the lack of a translator.
Stein said that Putin was at the event to make a speech and left immediately after.
“Nobody cared to make introductions. This wasn’t intended to be a discussion of any sort,” she told the outlet.
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