Radical climate group endorses Kamala Harris, says she's a leader they 'can pressure and move'

Radical climate action group Climate Defiance has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States. They didn't endorse her based on her record, or because she aligns with their goals, but because they believe she is someone they can control. "Harris is not the visionary we need," they said on X, "but she is the leader we can pressure and move."

Harris, who spends plenty on private jets, has been a proponent of supporting action to fight climate change. During the 2020 presidential campaign, she spoke at length about how climate change, along with racism, the economy, and the Covid pandemic at the time, were the greatest existential crises facing the United States. As VP under Joe Biden, she cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which was actually a sweeping climate bill. Inside Climate News has said that since she hopped to the top of the presidential ticket in 2024, she "has invigorated the climate movement—with some groups that have never before endorsed presidential candidates declaring support for Harris soon after Biden passed her the torch."

One of those climate groups is Climate Defiance. The mission of Climate Defiance is to end fossil fuel extraction on all federal land, to fight for "racial and economic justice," to engage in "disruptive direct action to compel politicians" to act with "urgency," to make climate change a "top-three political issue" in the US, to "make support for any fossil fuels as unacceptable on the left as opposing abortion or gay marriage," and to "make clear to Democratic lawmakers that the youth vote will only deliver for them if they deliver for us."

They write: "We are young. We are livid. We are no longer willing to be disposable," and that "our leaders have failed to save us. So we will save ourselves." Examples of their work they are most proud of includes telling Exxon CEO Darren Woods to "eat sh*t," storming the field and disrupting play at the Congressional Baseball Game, confronting WV Senator Joe Manchin, "tangling" with Governor Maura Healey in Nantucket, and disrupting a Fed Symposium at Jackson Hole.

Climate Defiance goes on to slam Donald Trump and his potential presidency, saying that it "would be a full-fledged disaster for our climate & our water & our lands. Trump would gut the EPA, tearing down regulations on cars and power plants and farms. He would sell out our sacred public spaces to his billionaire cronies. This is a nonstarter."

They go on to say that a second term in office for Trump "would be a nightmare for us all - but the most vulnerable would be hit first and worst. Trans people would be heavily targeted. Immigrants would be deported en masse. Families would be torn apart. Torn apart," they emphasize in their X post.

They are not super pleased with what they know about Harris, either, calling out her latest position on fracking and concerns over the Biden-Harris administration's stance on Israel, but they go on to say "Harris we can move. Trump we cannot." They say that Harris "is accountable to her base. And that means we can change her." Trump, they claim, "is beholden to racists, rapists, fascists, and billionaires. Moving him is much harder."

Looking at the election pragmatically, Climate Defiance claims that "A vote is not a valentine. It is a chess move. We must avert a worst-case scenario where Trump rises to power again. That can only happen if Harris wins. That's why you should vote for her."

The New York Times states that "for years" Harris has "made the environment a top concern," citing her Senate term in which she co-sponsored the Green New Deal and the oddly-named Inflation Reduction Act. They note that Harris "is widely expected to try to protect the climate achievements" of the current administration, in which she is second-in-command. The Times cites, the weather, claiming that her position on climate is one which "could resonate with voters during a summer of record heat."

"Kamala is a finger-to-the-wind politician," Climate Defiance says, "but we will use that to our advantage. We will roll through with a Category Five hurricane. It is now on us to build enough power to make her into the climate candidate we so desperately need her to be." At the end of their series of posts, Climate Defiance asks for donations.