Actress and climate activist Jane Fonda said in Ann Arbor on Monday that the fight against climate change would become “impossible” if former President Donald Trump wins his bid to return to the White House in November.
Fonda said that the effects of climate change are not abstract or in the distant future – they’re being felt now.
“It’s not just the climate. It’s our health. They’re killing us, and we’re paying them to do it,” Fonda said. “And it’s going to get worse. It’s going to get impossible. We lose if he gets elected.”
Fonda pointed to PFAs in Benton Harbor as an example, adding that she heard climate change is also affecting cherries in Michigan, eliciting supportive shouts from audience members.
“It’s not just four years. We can’t lose four years. We have to cut our emissions in half by 2030,” Fonda said. “We’re going in the wrong direction, and we’re going to be galloping in the wrong direction if Trump gets elected. We cannot allow that to happen.”
Fonda, who is slated to speak at a Climate Voters for Harris event hosted by the University of Michigan College Democrats Tuesday, said that she frequently hears from college students who say they aren’t planning to vote or are considering third party candidates.
“I say to my young people, nobody’s perfect. No candidate is perfect. No husband or wife is perfect,” Fonda said. “You’re not marrying her – although I can think of worse people to marry. You’re making a pragmatic choice. If [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz and [Vice President Kamala] Harris win, you have a voice. If the orange man wins, no voice.”
Fonda said that voters wanting to shift Harris’ position on issues have to first get her elected if they want to have that power to exert.
“She cares about people. She’s not going to be a corporate president. We have to get her elected, and then we have to organize like hell,” Fonda said. “It ain’t over when we win the election. So we don’t criticize now, we don’t say, ‘Oh, but I wish you – ‘ no, uh-uh. You get her elected and then organize.”
Fonda shared that the first time she canvassed, it was for her then-husband, Tom Hayden, who grew up in Royal Oak and was an author of the Port Huron Statement before eventually running for office in California.
“A couple of minutes on the porch, what can you learn? I learned so much talking to people, finding out what they thought, what they cared about,” Fonda said. “I think, especially in the middle part of the country, people want to be heard, they want to talk about what they need and what they feel.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said that the Ann Arbor campaign office is responsible for 25% of Democrats’ voter contact in the state.
“Not that I’m competitive, but we are doing more doors than anybody in the state, more voter contact than anybody in the state, thanks to all of you,” Dingell said.
Dingell said that the momentum she sees in Ann Arbor is making her more optimistic than she was in 2016, when she expressed concerns about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Michigan.
“I’m trying desperately to be ‘Debbie Determined’ and not ‘Debbie Downer.’ I’m not going to not tell the truth. I’ve never bullshitted you, and I’m never going to start now,” Dingell said. “You know, in 2016, nobody believed me. I’m going to tell you, there is a different feel right now. If I just came in here, I’d never be worried, to tell you the truth.”
But Dingell said that even with the momentum, she expects tough fights for state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) and former state Sen. Curtis Hertel in their campaigns to succeed U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), respectively holding the seats for Democrats. Republicans currently have a narrow majority in the U.S. House.
Fonda was scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for state legislative candidates Monday night. She called for a “no holds barred” approach in the election.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance is slated to do an event Tuesday in Sparta in West Michigan. Trump is scheduled to visit Flint Tuesday night for a campaign event, highlighting the importance of the 8th Congressional District where Paul Junge is making a third run for Congress, this time against McDonald Rivet.
“We’re not going to let him gain an ounce over there,” Dingell said. “He plays to people’s fear. He plays for people’s anxieties. He divides us with hate and fear.”
The Flint event, billed as a town hall moderated by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, will be the former president’s first campaign event since a possible second assassination attempt was thwarted over the weekend.
“I am sorry there was a second assassination attempt yesterday. This violence has to stop, period. But we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to it,” Dingell said. “I mean, he has not said he’ll accept election results, he will not condemn some of the violence we’ve been seeing. And J.D. Vance defended his lying yesterday that has caused violence in Ohio. Not OK. That’s what we have to remind people of. That’s who these people are.”
But Dingell warned against feeling a sense of schadenfreude after an audience member shouted out to ask when Trump will be required to “pay his fair share of the security of his own golf courses.”
“I know there were a lot of people who had some secret wishes. You shouldn’t say that,” Dingell said. “We will not stand up for that, either side. But right now, we just want to make sure he is safe. Because I want you all to know that I worry, if something happens to him, we’ll have civil war.”
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