Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed Democrats are mourning the loss of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by an American airstrike last week, and alleged they are the only people grieving worldwide.
President Trump directed U.S. forces to launch an airstrike that killed Soleimani on Thursday. The United States claimed intelligence showed that he was preparing to attack Americans abroad. The strike was also in retaliation for orchestrating “attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months,” according to a statement from the Pentagon.
Haley, who was previously the governor of South Carolina, argued that the Democrats in Congress and those vying for the party’s nomination for the 2020 presidential election were mourning Soleimani’s death during a Monday night appearance on Hannity.
“You don’t see anyone standing up for Iran. You’re not hearing any of the Gulf members; you’re not hearing China; you’re not hearing Russia,” she said. “The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership and our Democrat presidential candidates. No one else in the world, because they knew that this man had evil veins. They knew what he was capable of, and they saw the destruction and the lives lost based from his hands.”
Haley previously said that Soleimani’s death “should be applauded” and has praised the president for “doing the strong and right thing” in ordering the strike.
Despite her claims, 2020 front-runners former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren all labeled Soleimani a murderer but questioned Trump’s larger Middle East strategy.
Buttigieg referred to Soleimani as “a bad guy” but added that “taking out a bad guy is not necessarily a good idea.” Similarly, Biden said that the late Iranian leader “deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents through the region” but added that Trump “just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox.”
