Just days after President Trump vowed in his State of the Union address that terrorists “will never escape American justice,” Democrats promised quite the opposite in New Hampshire on Friday.
During a question in the Democratic debate about Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani, Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg all said they would not have killed him.
Sanders referred to the strike as an assassination and advocated for sitting down and talking at the United Nations instead.
"You're opening the door to international anarchy that every government in the world will then be subjected to attacks and assassination," he said. "What we have got to do is strengthen the State Department and our diplomatic capabilities, not just the military."
He continued: "What we have got to do is bring countries around the world together with our power and our wealth and say you know what, let us sit down and work out our differences through debate and discussion and the UN, not through more and more war."
Bernie Sanders called Trump’s killing of Soleimani an assassination and then suggested the alternative would be to “sit down and work out our differences through debate and discussion at the UN” pic.twitter.com/8ErFEJ7Es2
— ALX ???? (@alx) February 8, 2020
Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, said there is “no evidence” killing Soleimani made Americans safer.
Q: "Would Soliemani have been dead or would he still be alive under your presidency?"@PeteButtigieg: "In the situation that we saw with President Trump's decision, there's no evidence that that made our country safer."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 8, 2020
Soooo... alive. pic.twitter.com/N35n2NAUNQ
Outrageous!
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) February 8, 2020
Buttigieg just said he would not take out a terrorist responsible for killing 603 Americans, who had just killed a U.S. contractor, and who was actively planning more attacks
They've totally lost it!https://t.co/SLZ8mzDtvz
And not surprisingly, Biden, who also was a 'no' on the raid against Osama bin Laden, said he would have opposed killing Soleimani.
Joe Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy & nat'l security issue over the past 4 decades” according to fmr. Obama DOD Secretary Bob Gates.
— GOP (@GOP) February 8, 2020
So it should come as no surprise when Biden said that he would have opposed the Soleimani raid.pic.twitter.com/CMCvIC8Lwu
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said their responses were "shocking, but somehow not surprising."
In tonight’s debate, Democrats agreed that they’d all have permitted Qassem Soleimani to continue to walk the Earth.
— Tim Murtaugh - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TimMurtaugh) February 8, 2020
Not one would have taken him off the board, which means he’d still be plotting attacks on Americans.
Shocking, but somehow not surprising.