Three 2020 Democratic candidates said killing Iranian terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani was the wrong call by President Donald Trump during the eighth round of Democratic debates. Pete Buttigeig, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders all said if they were president, they would not have ordered the strike on Quds Force leader Soleimani.
“Given what you know about Soleimani, if your national security team came to you with an opportunity to strike, would Soleimani have been dead, or would he still be alive under your presidency?” ABC anchor and debate moderator David Muir asked Buttigieg.
“In the situation that we saw with President Trump’s decision, there is no evidence that that made our country safer,” Buttigieg said.
Pete Buttigieg says there is "no evidence" that killing terrorist Qassam Soleimani made American safer pic.twitter.com/hWIEiRvzII
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 8, 2020
In contrast, Sanders called the killing of a brutal terrorist leader an “assassination.” Sanders also said killing Soleimani or other terrorists the U.S. doesn’t like leads to world anarchy.
“You cannot go around saying, ‘You’re a bad guy, we’re gonna assassinate you.’ And then you’re gonna have, if that happens, you’re opening the door to internationally anarchy,” Sanders said.
Wow.
Bernie Sanders just called the killing of Soleimani an “assassination”
Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of thousands of incident people, including U.S. soldiers.
I’m glad our President took him out!
Bernie is disgusting.
RT!
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) February 8, 2020
Finally, Muir posed the question to Biden, who said he would not have ordered the strike on Soleimani because the terrorist leader was not an imminent threat.
“The Obama administration was aware of the threat Soleimani posed, so was the Bush administration before. I’m asking tonight, as commander in chief, though, would you have ordered the strike?” Muir asked Biden.
“No, and the reason I wouldn’t have ordered the strike — there’s no evidence yet of imminent threat that was going to come from him,” Biden said.
