Green Party vice-presidential nominee Dr. Butch Ware has rebuffed the latest Democratic Party smears against his running mate, Dr. Jill Stein, in his newest video.
Green Party vice-presidential nominee Dr. Butch Ware (r.) took to social media to blast Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (l.) for attempting to smear his running mate, Dr. Jill Stein.
"Bismallah, this message is for Kunta Keith Ellison, who is carrying water now for the Democrats even though he used to be a proud Black radical," Ware said in a clip shared to social media, taken as he enjoyed a meal of steak, eggs, and beans.
Ellison currently serves as Minnesota attorney general after becoming the first Muslim elected to Congress, where he represented the North Star State's fifth district from 2007 to 2019. He was deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2018.
Over the weekend, Ellison became the latest elected Democrat to attack Stein and the Green Party.
"If you've ever been annoyed by politicians who only show up at election time, then you've got to be annoyed with Dr. Jill Stein," Ellison posted on X. "She claims to be an unconventional alternative but she's nauseatingly conventional. She shows up every 4 years making lavish promises but has no record of producing anything except Republican victories. Hard Pass."
Ware accused Ellison of knowingly telling untruths about the Green Party. His comments echoed accusations launched by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others suggesting Stein does not prioritize party-building or support down-ballot candidates – claims the Greens have vehemently denied.
"They line up all the people of color that they can to come out and try to take the same shots, and it’s pathetic," Ware said, "because what it is is that the Democratic Party is a plantation. Massa say 'jump,' y’all say 'how high?'"
Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein joins a pro-Palestine protest outside the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Ware said he and Ellison had met and had a positive exchange during a Friday prayer just days before the Minnesota AG launched his online attack.
"You know full well that I would never side with someone who is predatory or that was just coming out every four years. You’ve been knowing me," Ware insisted.
"You’re out here playing yourself in the streets letting them whip you till you call yourself Toby in public," he added in an apparent allusion to the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
On the campaign trail, Stein and Ware have been vocal advocates of Palestinian liberation and an end to US weapons transfers to the apartheid state of Israel. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, by contrast, has repeatedly asserted Israel's "right to defend itself" while opposing an arms embargo to end the Gaza genocide.
The Greens have suggested that Democratic attacks are picking up due to the Stein-Ware campaign's surging popularity among Americans outraged by the ongoing assault on Gaza. New polling data released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations pits Stein ahead of Harris among Muslim voters in several key swing states.
"So it’s no longer Kunta Keith," Ware ended his video. "It’s just Killer Keith, because just like every single other person in that Democratic Party, you now fully own this genocide. It belongs entirely to you, so keep letting them call you by your slave name."
