June, 19 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Bernhardt, Food & Water Action - 267-428-1903 - sbernhardt@fwwatch.org
Actor and Activist Mark Ruffalo Endorses Mondaire Jones for Congress
Jones continues to distinguish himself from the field as a climate champion.
WASHINGTON
Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo has endorsed Mondaire Jones ahead of next week's primary election for New York's 17th Congressional District. Ruffalo's endorsement was shared by Food & Water Action, the national advocacy organization, which has been working in support of Jones.
The announcement adds yet another prominent voice to the growing chorus in support for Jones, who has been backed by grassroots and national progressive groups, as well as New York state legislators, members of Congress, and former presidential hopefuls Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Jones has separated himself from the pack as a progressive champion. Jones has made fighting for a Green New Deal a central plank of his campaign. He has looked past weak and unambitious policies like a carbon tax and instead championed real climate solutions like banning fracking. Jones' solid progressive positions have won him support from groups like Food & Water Action, New York Communities for Change, and Working Families Party.
In a video announcement, Ruffalo said:
"At the core of our current crises of COVID-19, racial injustice, and climate change is a failure of leadership. That's why it's so exciting to see New York poised to add new leadership to our congressional delegation with Mondaire Jones. I'm proud to endorse this candidate in the fight for justice and systemic change. Please vote on June 23rd for this climate champion in New York's 17th Congressional district."
Ruffalo has been an outspoken leader in the climate movement, fighting to ban fracking in New York, working with the Solutions Project to get New York to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible. He was also the executive producer of the film Dark Waters, which told the story of corporate water contamination in West Virginia. His endorsement further solidifies Jones as a climate champion candidate.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
But the president's sweeping use of his clemency power as his term nears its conclusion did not appear to extend to any of the 40 men currently on death row—some of whom have been there for decades.
According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
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As Omar, a leading critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, also pointed out: "The NDAA includes a provision that blocks the Pentagon from using data on casualties and deaths from the Gaza Ministry of Health or any sources relying on those statistics. This is an alarming erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people, ignoring the human toll of ongoing violence."
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