Fact Check

Did Jill Stein Endorse Donald Trump?

Green Party candidate Jill Stein did not endorse Donald Trump, and she expressed wariness of either Trump's or Clinton's winning the presidency.

Published Oct. 13, 2016

Claim:
Jill Stein endorsed Donald Trump for President.

On 13 October 2016, the USA Politics Today web site published a clickbait article titled "BREAKING: Jill Stein Just ENDORSED Donald Trump! Watch Her Obliterate Hillary!"

Accompanied by a user-created C-SPAN clip of Stein purportedly endorsing Trump, the article stated:

Jill Stein just came out and destroyed Hillary Clinton and everything she stands for.

In the video, she says that “Donald Trump is better” and that “Hillary Clinton more likely is start nuclear war” ... Stein also goes on to talk about how Gorbachev has said that we are closer to NUCLEAR WAR with Russia than we ever have been because of Hillary Clinton’s policies.

Hillary policies will start a war with Russia that will go nuclear.

Stein brings up a good point that she won’t sleep well at night if Hillary Clinton were to get elected.

I can’t imagine anyone would with the threat of nuclear war looming over our country’s head.

This is Huuuge for Donald Trump! Even the independents are beginning to hop on the Trump Train!

Hillary Clinton was definitely hoping she would win some of the independent vote but not after this ... Please share this everywhere! Hillary Clinton must be stopped!

This was a rather slanted interpretation of what was captured in a C-SPAN clip that stemmed from Dr. Stein's 11 October 2016 appearance on that cable network. Stein was actively seeking office as a presidential candidate herself and clearly would not be "endorsing" another candidate under those circumstances.

In fact, Stein in no way endorsed Donald Trump or opined that "Donald Trump is better" — rather, she said she wouldn't "sleep well at night" if either Trump or Clinton were elected, asserted that both candidates were "promoting lethal policies," and averred it was "fortunate [that] we have another choice other than these two candidates." The most positive thing Stein said about Donald Trump was that she found Hillary Clinton's foreign policy to be "scarier" than his:

"Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria. So I won't sleep well at night if Donald Trump is elected, but I sure won't sleep well at night if Hillary Clinton is elected. Fortunately, we have another choice other than these two candidates, who are both promoting lethal policies. But on the issue of war and nuclear weapons, and the potential for nuclear war, it is actually Hillary's policies which are much scarier than Donald Trump ..."

A subsequent "open letter" posted to Jill Stein's Facebook page was also widely touted as an example of the Green Party candidate's endorsing Donald Trump, but the post was written by the Social Media Director of the Stein/Baraka campaign (not Stein herself), and it exhorted people to vote against Hillary Clinton (not to vote for Donald Trump):

The candidate herself made this point clear in a follow-up tweet (one which referenced this very article):

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.