US election 2024: Greta Thunberg refuses to endorse either candidate in damning post

Multiple celebrities have come out in support of either candidate in the US presidential election throughout the course of the campaign period – from Terminator star and former Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsing Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, to Jake Paul (perhaps unsurprisingly) backing Donald Trump – but climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has taken a different stance ahead of next Thursday’s vote.

She isn’t endorsing either candidate.

The 21-year-old Swede, who has previously made headlines for her Twitter/X spat with controversial commentator Andrew Tate and her ‘school strikes for climate’, took to the social media platform on Friday to issue a statement expressing her views on the two main candidates, and began by saying it is “probably impossible to overestimate” the impact of the US election on the world and “the future of humanity”.

While she claimed Trump is “way more dangerous” than Harris – to be expected when she went viral for glaring at the Republican and climate change denier back in 2019 – Thunberg added that “no matter” which one of them wins, America “will still be an imperialist, hyper-capitalist world power that will ultimately continue to lead the world further into a racist, unequal world with an ever increasingly escalating climate and environmental emergency”.

She continued: “With this in mind, my main message to Americans is to remember that you cannot only settle for the least worst option. Democracy is not only every four years on election day, but also every hour of every day in between. You cannot think you have done ‘enough’ only by voting, especially when both those candidates have blood on their hands.

“Let’s not forget that the genocide in Palestine is happening under the Biden and Harris administration, with American money and complicity. It is not in any way ‘feminist’, ‘progressive’ or ‘humanitarian’ to bomb innocent children and civilians – it is the opposite, even if it is a woman in charge.”

Harris’s stance on Palestine has been challenged a number of times on the campaign trail – in Detroit, Arizona and Georgia in that order.

On 8 August, when protesters in the Michigan city shouted “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide”, Harris responded by saying “if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

Just two days later, in Glendale, she addressed pro-Palestine supporters chanting “free, free Palestine” by saying “now is the time” for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, and that both her and Biden are “working around the clock every day” to secure such a deal.

Then, in Georgia, Harris repeated similar remarks when she said “the president and I are working around the clock” and “we’ve got to get a hostage deal done and get a ceasefire done now”.

Except Thunberg evidently isn’t happy, as she went on to add: “I cannot for my life understand how some can even pretend to talk about humanitarian values, without even questioning their own role in further deepening global oppression and massacres of entire countries.

“So, Americans, you must do everything in your power to call out this extreme hypocrisy and the catastrophic consequences American imperialism has on a global scale.

“Be uncomfortable, fill the streets, block, organise, boycott, occupy, explicitly call out those in power whose actions and inaction lead to death and destruction. Join and support those who are resisting and leading the change. Nothing less will ever be acceptable.”

Thunberg has been mostly applauded for her comments, with some praising her “political evolution”:

The activist isn’t the only one to criticise both the Republican and Democratic candidates, with “Hot To Go!” singer Chappell Roan (real name Kayleigh Amstutz) receiving a mixed response on social media after telling The Guardian there are “problems on both sides”.

Roan later clarified her stance on TikTok by stating “there is nuance to what I say in interviews” and that “endorsing and voting are completely different”.

She added: “Obviously, f*** the policies of the right, but also f*** some of the policies on the left. That’s why I can’t endorse.

“F*** Trump for f***ing real, but f*** some of the s*** that has gone down in the Democratic Party that has failed people like me and you – and more so Palestine, and more so every marginalised community in the world.”

She did, however, state she would be “voting for f***ing Kamala” despite her objections.

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