The Trump campaign criticized Bernie Sanders Wednesday for condemning the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
“DANGEROUS: BERNIE SANDERS CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO DEFEND AMERICAN LIVES,” read the title of a blog post on the campaign’s website. “Since Soleimani was brought to justice, Sanders has refused to acknowledge the American blood on his hands and repeated talking points straight from Iran’s Ayatollahs,” the post read.
A campaign account tweeted out a compilation video positioning Sanders against President Trump. The campaign posted clips of Sanders’s interviews this week in which he discussed Soleimani, likening his stance to that of Russian and Iranian propaganda.
“Bring it,” Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss wrote in response.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told the Washington Examiner: “Bernie Sanders is dangerous. He believes that taking out the most vicious terror chief on the planet sets a bad ‘precedent’ and he uses the same talking points as the Iranians and Russians by calling it an ‘assassination.’ He cannot be trusted to keep Americans safe.”
Both Trump and Sanders have pledged to stop “endless wars” and do good by the working and middle class. They rail against an entrenched Washington establishment, painting theirs as outsider campaigns.
But while Trump touts record jobs numbers and an economy that Republican pollsters say positions him for a win in November, the president is also fending off impeachment and criticism of the White House’s Iran strategy, including an offensive strike that stands in contention with his 2016 promise to curb military intervention overseas.
Sanders, who is rising in early-state polling, likewise targets a constituency of voters for whom an anti-interventionist message resonates. On a foreign policy call Wednesday with supporters, the moderator counted 900 veteran or active service members on the line. Sanders cast a notable anti-Iraq war vote in 2002 and often refers to the vote to draw a contrast with opponents.
“Joe Biden voted and helped lead the effort for the war in Iraq, the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday.
The campaign’s jab at Sanders suggests an attempt to draw a contrast between Trump and the eventual nominee, a Democratic strategist said. “If Biden is the nominee, they’ll attack him as a warmonger because of his vote on Iraq. If Bernie is the nominee, they’ll attack him for looking to appease Iran.”
“I don’t think anyone in Trumpworld views Sanders as a threat,” said former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller. “It’s smart for the campaign to remind people about ‘Crazy Bernie.'”
After blasting the congressional briefings relating to the Soleimani strike delivered by the White House Wednesday, Democrats are now seeking to curb presidential authority to go to war with Iran, forcing Trump to seek congressional approval before taking any further military action.
