‘I Can’t Believe You’re Saying These Words’: MS NOW Host Shocked When Guest Says Trump Has ‘Already Committed a War Crime’

MS NOW’s Ali Velshi was shocked on Wednesday when former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes claimed President Donald Trump had “already committed a war crime.”

Rhodes joined All In to discuss the U.S. war with Iran and the president’s Tuesday announcement of a two-week pause to hostilities. Velshi asked Rhodes if the ceasefire, which has already caused widespread confusion, was a genuine deal and what he thought of the President’s rhetoric during the conflict.

“There’s nothing in modern American history anywhere near this,” said Rhodes. “He threatened to commit genocide. He threatened to wipe out a thousand-year-old civilization. He threatened to bomb civilian targets that have nothing to do with any military objectives. He threatened mass murder on an epic scale.”

The president had previously threatened to bomb civilian targets in Iran, claiming that “a whole civilization will die,” if a deal with Iran was not reached by 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Rhodes claimed that, though the president did not follow through on his threat, which many saw as a potential war crime, the president had already overstepped the laws of war.

“And what? Whether he ends up doing it or not, he’s already committed a war crime. And this will color the opinion of the United States for generations around the world,” said Rhodes. “There is no moral high ground anymore. He effectively cast the United States as acting like a rogue nation, led by an autocrat who doesn’t value any human life whatsoever. And those are pretty serious words. But that’s what he said. I mean, we all read the post. It wasn’t the first time. ”

Velshi said he was surprised at Rhodes’ characterization of Trump and his rule over the country, claiming it was markedly different from his previous criticism of world leaders.

“I can’t believe you’re saying these words,” said Vleshi. “I mean, we’ve all been critical of presidents and different leaders. This is different. This is not critical of. This is completely in a different space. Whether or not you believe that the United States should be the world’s policeman or be at the forefront of these discussions is entirely different from what we have now become.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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