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Clinton Must Reject Money from Fossil Fuel Interests, Starting with Exxon Lobbyists
NEW YORK, NY
In response to an activist asking Hillary Clinton if she would keep her word to act on climate by pledging to reject fossil fuel money, the Democratic presidential candidate asserted that she is "so sick of the Sanders campaign lying" about her.
350 Action is calling on all candidates to pledge to reject all money from fossil fuel interests to their campaigns, starting with Exxon.
Reports confirm that Clinton's biggest campaign bundlers have come from fossil fuel lobbyists. According to a recent report from VICE News, fossil fuel interests have pumped $3.25 million into the largest super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election cycle. The Clinton campaign has received donations from industry lobbyists including ExxonMobil's Theresa Fariello.
"Clinton must immediately pledge to reject all money fossil fuel from interests to prove that she would keep fossil fuels in the ground, and she needs to start with Exxon's own Theresa Fariello," said Yong Jung Cho, a spokesperson for 350 Action. "Voters who care about the health of our climate, our communities and our democracy have repeatedly asked Clinton to refuse fossil fuel money -- after the way she responded yesterday, she needs to finally take the pledge and refuse donations from those who profit from destruction."
Young people across the country have been asking about Clinton's ties to the fossil fuel industry since July. Days after the conclusion of the Paris climate talks, Clinton vowed to look into fossil fuel donations to her campaign. Clinton has previously justified contributions made from fossil lobbyists by stating that "they're giving money that I'm going to use against them."
At the same event yesterday, the former Senator of New York claimed to support the statewide fracking ban, though Exxon is the world's biggest fracker.
Last November, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation into Exxon's climate lies. Since then, the Attorneys General of California, Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands have begun similar investigations, and 20 Attorneys General have launched an unprecedented coalition to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for their decades of deep deception. The criminal branch of the FBI is also probing into Exxon's crimes at the recommendation of the Department of Justice.
"Clinton openly supports a Department of Justice investigation into Exxon's climate crimes, meanwhile she's still accepting millions of bundled campaign donations from their lobbyists -- there's a disturbing disconnect there," said Cho.
The climate movement has pushed Clinton to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, oppose toxic trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and suggest a moratorium for all fossil fuel extraction on public lands.
350 Action is the independent political action arm of the non-profit, non-partisan climate justice group 350.org.
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After Collins Comments on ICE in Maine, Platner Explains How to Actually Fight 'Authoritarian Overreach'
"The difference between Sen. Collins and me is that I would do something about it," said the Democratic Senate candidate.
Jan 16, 2026
With public support plummeting for President Donald Trump's deployment of masked, armed federal immigration agents as the administration is expected to next target Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins issued a brief statement to the Bangor Daily News saying she didn't "see the rationale" for the expected arrival of US immigration and Customs Enforcement, but had little else to say about what she would do to protect people in her state.
"The difference between Sen. Collins and me is that I would do something about it," said Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate who is running to challenge the six-term senator in this year's election.
Platner is currently out of the country on a brief hiatus from his Senate campaign as he and his wife pursue in vitro fertilization in Norway, a topic he's discussed openly with voters as he's brought attention to the exorbitant cost of IVF in the US compared to Europe and called for the Medicare program to be expanded to everyone in the US.
As reports mounted of an impending major ICE deployment in Maine, Platner called on constituents to "protect our neighbors from authoritarian overreach, however we can."
"As many of you already know, it sounds like ICE is coming to Maine... This means that us Mainers are going to have to rise to this moment and protect our communities and our neighbors from the authoritarian overreach that we just saw bring about the tragedy in Minneapolis," said Platner in a video posted on social media, referring to an ICE agent's fatal shooting of Renee Good last week.
We have all heard the disturbing news: ICE is very likely coming for Maine.
We must protect our neighbors from authoritarian overreach, however we can. pic.twitter.com/PBYL63jgJ1
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) January 15, 2026
Platner has spoken out on the campaign trail about his vehement opposition to Trump's deployment of federal agents to cities including Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. He said in October at an event that as a senator, once Democrats win back control of Congress, he would "haul all of these people and the ones that made them do it in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their masks off."
Last month, Platner spoke at a rally in Lewiston, Maine, where hundreds of people gathered to express solidarity with the state's growing Somali population. The event was held after Trump referred to Somali people in the US as "garbage." Somali community members in Minnesota have been a primary target of ICE and other federal agents in the state in recent weeks, following a fraud scandal in which some people within the diaspora were charged and convicted.
This week, Trump denigrated Somali people in Maine, saying they have perpetrated "scams" in the state. The Maine Monitor reported that immigration authorities were seen in Lewiston last month at Gateway Community Services, a healthcare provider that serves immigrants for which the state suspended payments after it alleged interpreter fraud had taken place there.
On Thursday, Platner directed Mainers to the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, which has a hotline for people to report ICE sightings and has compiled information about residents' rights when they are approached by ICE agents, ways to support detainees, how people can prepare their families for potential detention or deportation efforts by the government, and how to record ICE arrests and actions safely.
Portland, Maine Mayor Mark Dion and Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline had been scheduled to hold a press conference Friday morning but it was canceled due to safety concerns. Both Democratic mayors issued statements on Wednesday warning Maine residents to know their rights in the event that they are stopped by ICE and called on people to look out for their neighbors.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is also running in the US Senate primary, also said state police had been directed to coordinate with local law enforcement in cities including Portland and Lewiston, where police do not work with ICE.
Collins' only other comment to the Bangor Daily News on Thursday was that she supports "the deportation of individuals who have criminal charges against them." Department of Homeland Security data has shown that a large majority of people detained by ICE in recent months have had no criminal convictions.
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United Nations Experts Condemn Trump Assault on Venezuela as ‘Flagrant Violation of the UN Charter’
"Latin America is a zone of peace. The obligation to resolve conflicts peacefully and in accordance with international law must be respected."
Jan 16, 2026
A group of United Nations experts on Thursday condemned the Trump administration's deadly assault on Venezuela, abduction of its president, and efforts to control its government and natural resources as profound violations of international law that cannot be allowed to stand without accountability.
"It is gravely concerning that, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this marks the second time in four years that a permanent member of the Security Council has carried out an armed attack in flagrant violation of the UN Charter," the experts, including around two dozen UN special rapporteurs, said in a joint statement.
The UN Charter prohibits "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."
“The prohibition against violating national sovereignty through unprovoked armed attacks applies even in the context of serious human rights violations and restrictions on freedoms such as those documented in Venezuela,” the experts added. "Latin America is a zone of peace. The obligation to resolve conflicts peacefully and in accordance with international law must be respected."
Their statement came days after US President Donald Trump expressed contempt for international law in an interview with the New York Times, saying, "I don’t need international law."
Trump added that his "own morality" is "the only thing that can stop" him.
Top administration officials have been similarly dismissive of any legal restraints on the ability of the US to invade nations and seize their resources whenever it pleases.
“We’re a superpower, and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower," top White House adviser Stephen Miller said in a CNN appearance last week. "It is absurd that we would allow a nation in our backyard to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries but not to us.”
Morris Tidball-Binz, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said in a separate statement on Thursday that the Trump administration has engaged in "excessive and unlawful use of lethal force" at home and abroad, including in Venezuela and on the high seas.
“International law does not allow States to kill on the basis of labels, perceptions of how someone appears, or allegations of wrongdoing,” Tidball-Binz said. “Whether at sea, abroad, or at home, the use of lethal force must be strictly limited by the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and precaution, and may be used only as a last resort to protect life.”
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58% of Americans—Across Political Spectrum—Say 2025 Was a 'Failure' Under Trump
Americans also said he's "gone too far" on using presidential powers and the US military, cutting government programs, and deporting immigrants, and not done enough to cut costs.
Jan 16, 2026
Polling released Friday by CNN shows a majority of Americans see President Donald Trump's first year back in the White House as a "failure" and are dissatisfied with his focus on deportations, warmaking, and gutting the government rather than cutting costs.
SSRS surveyed over 1,000 Americans from last Friday through Monday and found that 58% consider the first year of Trump's second term as president to be a failure, compared with just 42% who said it was a "success."
An even higher majority, 64%, said that the Republican "hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems," a figure that rises to 71% for respondents under age 45.
Additionally, majorities said he has "gone too far" with:
- changes to cultural institutions such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian (62%);
- trying to expand America's power over other countries (59%);
- use of the power of the presidency and executive branch (58%);
- cuts to federal government programs (57%); use of the US military to achieve his goals (55%);
- deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally (52%); and
- changing the way the United States government works (51%).
Trump last month slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, provoking allegations of "narcissism" and newly introduced legislation that would ban the naming or renaming of federal buildings, land, and other assets after sitting presidents.
Over the past year, he's also been called out for moving the country "toward oligarchy, authoritarianism, and kleptocracy," including by serving the interests of the fossil fuel executives and Big Tech billionaires who worked to get him elected. Among them is Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth and former de facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which led Trump's evisceration of the federal workforce.
Trump has also bullied journalists and news agencies across the United States and abroad, unleashed thousands of federal immigration agents for violent enforcement operations in various US cities, and cracked down on protesters, including those opposing his attacks on immigrants.
The administration has also illegally killed over 100 people in a boat-bombing spree allegedly targeting drug traffickers in international waters, abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and recently threatened to bomb Iran and take over Greenland, a Danish territory.
Meanwhile, "when it comes to trying to reduce the price of everyday goods," 64% of those polled for CNN said Trump has "not gone far enough."
Research released Thursday by the congressional Joint Economic Committee's Democratic staff shows that a typical US family paid $310 more for groceries during the first year of Trump's second term compared to 2024. Millions of Americans are also struggling to get health insurance coverage due to Republicans' refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
New from us: Public opinion on nearly every aspect of President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House is negative, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds.www.cnn.com/2026/01/16/p...
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— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 10:09 AM
"Asked to choose the country's top issue, Americans pick the economy by a nearly two-to-one margin over any other topic," CNN reported. "The poll suggests Trump is struggling to prove that he's addressing it."
"Views of economic conditions have remained stable—and largely negative—for the past two years, with about 3 in 10 rating the economy positively," the network detailed. "What’s changed in the latest poll is the increased pessimism about the future: Just over 4 in 10 expect the economy to be good a year from now, down from 56% just before Trump was sworn in last January."
Overall, 61% of respondents said they disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president. Democratic strategists called the results "brutal" and "devastating." As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie put it, "A year in and Trump is in free fall with the public across every conceivable issue."
Faced with widespread disapproval from voters, Trump is doing whatever he can to keep his party in power—including pressuring GOP state legislators to rig their congressional maps before November, trying to seize sensitive voter data, and even suggesting that this year's elections should be canceled.
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