(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/30/2024) Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein pushed back on Wednesday on the Democratic National Committee for running digital ads that portray her and independent candidate Cornel West as “spoilers.”  

Speaking on Michigan’s Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shiels, Stein said Democrats “spoiled it for themselves” when they lost the support of voters for the way they “crafted the economy and bailed out Wall Street.” Whether its allowing Israel to “drag us into a larger war” in the Middle East, not making working people a spending priority or “squandering our tax dollars on the health insurance industry,” Democrats are earning every vote they are losing to other options, like herself. 

“They lost 1,000 seats in state Legislatures. They lost 64 seats in Congress and 12 seats in the Senate, and they lost 12 governorships,” Stein said. “Democrats are being punished for having thrown working people under the bus.  

“They spoiled it for themselves. They try to change the subject and blame it on their competition,” she added. “It’s not the competition that’s taking votes away. They don’t own your vote.”  

Stein, a Harvard-educated physician, is making her third bid for the White House under the Green Party banner. In 2012, she received 21,897 votes (.46%). In 2016, she received 51,463 votes (1.07%).  

Democrats at the time bemoaned that without Stein on the ballot, her votes would have gone to Democrat Hillary Clinton and given her Michigan’s Electoral College votes.  

The DNC’s ads feature Republican Donald Trump saying that he likes Jill Stein because “she takes 100% from them.”  

“It’s clear that Jill Stein and Cornel West can help decide if Donald Trump wins the White House in 2024 – just like Stein did in 2016,” said DNC Senior Advisor Mary Beth Cahill. “That’s why Trump and his MAGA allies are doing everything in their power to prop up these spoiler candidates. A vote for Stein or West is a vote for Trump.”  

Stein said the Democrats are fighting “hard to take me off the ballot.” Democrats went to court in seven states to get her off the ballot, she said. The Green Party nominee is on the ballot in 38 states making up 437 electoral college votes. The party has write-in status in seven other states.  

“It’s the American people who need choices,” she said. “It’s our democracy that's on life support and my goal is to get more choices in the hands of the American people.”