Award time!
Many of the Democratic presidential hopefuls have weighed in on Donald Trump’s decision to neutralize Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani, who was responsible in his lifetime for murdering 600 U.S. soldiers. Not surprisingly in the current political climate, those who have spoken are displeased by the decision, and not only from a strategic standpoint but a humanitarian one.
So which reaction is the silliest? You be the judge.
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On Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was a guest on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where she told host Jake Tapper, “Look, it was a targeted attack on a government official, a high-ranking military official for the government of Iran.” She also referred to the drone strike that took Soleimani out as an “assassination.”
It’s an interesting reaction considering that three days prior to her appearance, Warren had categorized Soleimani as a “murderer.” Of course, that was before Donald Trump (aka Satan incarnate) took the initiative to neutralize him.
Warren, Jan 2: Soleimani is a "murderer"
Warren, Jan 3: U.S. "assassinated" Soleimani
Warren, Jan. 5: Soleimani is "a government official, a high-ranking military official" https://t.co/Bz8Squds0c
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) January 6, 2020
Contrast Warren’s statement with that of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who equated the strike that killed Soleimani to Vladimir Putin’s assassinating Russian dissidents. Watch.
Bernie Sanders compares killing terrorist who killed Americans to Putin assassinating Russian dissidentspic.twitter.com/LjQneyD1zg
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) January 7, 2020
Pete Buttigieg, also a guest on Tapper’s show on Sunday, couldn’t seem to make up his mind whether the killing was an assassination, after having previously asserted that it was one.
One point on which all the candidates were in agreement was that the strike was a mistake. Via the Associated Press from Jan. 3:
Former Vice President Joe Biden charged Thursday that Trump “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the the move ”’increased the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict.”
Needless to say, those who were in office in 2011 had a very different view of Barack Obama’s raid on the hideout of Osama bin Laden. Here’s Sanders at the time:
