Iran, Soleimani hot topics at debate
Dems also tackle Iraq, Soleimani’s killing, Iran threat
Democratic presidential candidates sparred over foreign policy in the final debate before the Iowa caucuses.
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidates sparred over Iraq, war and foreign policy Tuesday night in the final debate showdown before the Iowa caucuses.
Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders drew an immediate contrast with moderate opponent Joe Biden by noting that Sanders aggressively fought against a 2002 measure to authorize military action against Iraq.
Sanders called the Iraq invasion “the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country.”
“I did everything I could to prevent that war,” Sanders said. “Joe saw it differently.”
Biden acknowledged that his 2002 vote to authorize military action was “a mistake,” but highlighted his role in the Obama administration helping to draw down the U.S. military presence in the region.
Sanders also said he fears that President Donald Trump’s actions involving Iran could be leading the United States into a foreign policy quagmire of the highest level.
The Vermont senator said that what he sees as the country’s top foreign policy disasters — the wars in Vietnam and Iraq — were “based on lies.”
It was the first debate since Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which heightened tensions throughout the Middle East.
Sanders accused Trump of being dishonest about the intelligence that led to the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani.
Just six candidates gathered in Des Moines, each eager to seize a dose of final-days momentum on national television before Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucuses. A “he-said, she-said” dispute over gender involving two longtime allies, Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, loomed over the event, though it was not a focus in the debate’s earliest moments,
Warren charged publicly on the eve of the debate that Sanders told her during a private 2018 meeting that he didn’t think a woman could defeat Trump, a claim tinged with sexism that Sanders vigorously denied.
Amid an immediate uproar on the left, there were signs that both candidates wanted to de-escalate the situation.
The feuding was likely to expand to include nearly every candidate on stage by night’s end.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has had several strong debates, was looking for another opportunity as she remains mired in the middle of the pack in polling.
Billionaire Tom Steyer faced criticism that he’s trying to buy his way to the
White House.
And with two surveys showing Pete Buttigieg losing support in Iowa, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, needed a breakout moment to regain strength before the caucuses.
Trump, campaigning in neighboring Wisconsin just as Democrats took the debate stage, tried to encourage the feud between Sanders and Warren from afar.
“She said that Bernie stated strongly that a woman can’t win. I don’t believe that Bernie said that, I really don’t. It’s not the kind of thing Bernie would say,” Trump said.
The Democrats were unified in their opposition to Trump’s presidency and particularly his foreign policy.
Several candidates condemned Trump’s recent move to kill Iran’s top general and his decision to keep U.S. troops in the region.
“We have to get combat troops out,” declared Warren, who also called for reducing the military budget.
Others, including Buttigieg, Biden and Klobuchar, said they favored maintaining a small military presence in the Middle East.
“I bring a different perspective,”
said Buttigeg, who was a military intelligence officer in Afghanistan. “We can continue to remain engaged without having an endless commitment to ground troops.”
CNN hosted the debate. Businessman Andrew Yang, an Asian American candidate who appeared in the December debate, failed to hit the polling threshold for Tuesday’s event.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker ended his campaign Monday after he didn’t make the debate stage, leaving just one black candidate — former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick — in the race.