Reason #5753 That Trump Was Elected

"Hanoi" Jane Fonda: Jane Fonda on Whether She’s ‘Proud’ of America: ‘No, but I’m Proud of the Resistance’ Against Trump

Actress Jane Fonda said Monday that she is not proud of America today but is proud of those who continue to protest Donald Trump's presidency.

BBC's Stephen Sackur asked Fonda, a political activist, on "HARDtalk" about her lifelong activism, starting with her trip to North Vietnam in 1972.

Asked if she regrets going to Hanoi during the Vietnam War, Fonda said she does not regret going but does regret a picture showing her with North Vietnamese troops on an antiaircraft gun.

"The thing that I regret is that on my last day there, I made the mistake of going to a ceremony at an anti-aircraft gun," she said. "It wasn't being used. There were no airplanes or anything like that. There was a ceremony. I was asked to sing and people were laughing and so forth and I was led, and I sat down."

"And then I got up and as I walked away, I realized, ‘Oh my gosh. It's going to look like I am against my own country's soldiers and siding with the enemy, which is the last thing in the world that was true," she continued.

A photograph of Fonda with North Vietnamese troops on an antiaircraft gun that would have been used to shoot down American planes particularly angers veterans, and helped earn her the nickname "Hanoi Jane" when she returned to the U.S.

Sackur followed up by asking if it is effective for celebrities to protest Trump at award ceremonies and whether she is "proud of the American today."

"I don't know, all I know is, and I say this as a dyed in wool Democrat, the Democratic Party has failed us," Fonda said. "Clinton failed us, and in a way the Obama administration have all neglected the very people who voted for Trump, who used to be the base of the Democratic Party."

"Let me ask you a simple question: are you proud of America today?" Sackur asked.

"No, but, I'm proud of the resistance," she said. "I'm proud of the people who are turning out in unprecedented numbers and continue over and over and over again to protest what Trump is doing. I’m very proud of them, that core."

One could do worse than always vote against Jane's preferred candidates.

Linked by Wombat-socho in "Rule 5 Sunday: No, Not That Asia."