Folk icon and lifelong activist Joan Baez is once again criticizing President Donald Trump and the “cruelty” of his administration, saying that social change requires the courage to risk something — but that this prospect will only get “scarier” for Americans as time goes on.
Baez spoke out on “The Best People with Nicolle Wallace,” a podcast hosted by the titular MSNBC host, who noted that Baez was arrested in her youth for anti-Vietnam War activism and asked her how that era compared to the present.
“Well, I went to jail twice, and it was all for aiding and abetting draft resistance, but you know, we had our lawyers, we had the call, we had the families come visit, we had our medication,” said Baez. “And right now ... the first order of the day for this group of people is cruelty.”
“And [they] don’t just put people in cages, [they] love putting people in cages,” she added. “And that’s what makes it scary in a way that I was not scared back then.”
Trump launched mass deportations shortly after assuming office earlier this year, and has since deployed troops to Los Angeles, federalized the Washington, D.C., police force and implemented new restrictions on press access.
