(NewsNation) —Dr. Jill Stein is no fan of the term “third party.” She prefers “independent party.”
“Independent of the money of billionaires and corporations,” she told “NewsNation Prime,” on Saturday.
“I think the framing here is not third party versus mainstream establishment. The question is whether campaigns and candidates are being sponsored by big-money donors.”
Which, she said, defined Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s now-suspended campaign. “Pretending to be a reformer when you’re basically immersed in the swamp – I think it just doesn’t carry the day,” she added.
Despite that criticism, Stein said she wanted to open a line of communication with Kennedy.
“I have sought conversations with RFK many times over the course of the past year, and he has not been interested,” she said.
Stein, the Green Party’s presidential nominee for the third time, said that her job is about raising awareness as much as it is about winning votes.
“Our role here is to bring up these issues that are not going to get raised by politics as usual.” That is especially true, she added, when it comes to health care.
“Our campaign has been fighting for health care as a human right for everyone, comprehensively. And that includes reproductive care, with those decisions being made by a woman and her health care provider.”
In the wider picture, Stein favors a “Medicare for all” system, which she said could save Americans half a trillion dollars a year.
“Reproductive care should be part of a system of comprehensive health care. As a medical doctor, myself, I’m very aware that we cannot separate our different organ systems. We are one whole human being, and we deserve full, whole health care across all of our basic human needs,” she said.
