Bernie Sanders Scolds Margaret Brennan for Saying Trump Was ‘Just Doing a Limited Strike’ on Iran: ‘That’s an Act of Warfare’
Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders mocked CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan for saying that President Donald Trump was considering “just doing a limited strike” on Iran, and said that such a strike is “an act of warfare.”
On Sunday morning’s edition of CBS News’ Face the Nation, Sanders had little patience for Brennan’s characterizations of Trump’s aborted military strike on Iran.
“Was President Trump’s decision this week to call off that strike the right one?” Brennan asked.
With a derisive chuckle, Sanders replied, “See, it’s like somebody setting a fire to a basket full of paper and then putting it out. He helped create the crisis and then he stopped the attacks.”
“The idea that we’re looking at the president of the United States who number one, thinks that a war with Iran is something that might be good for this country…” Sanders continued, but Brennan interjected.
“He was just doing a limited strike,” Brennan said.
“Oh, just a limited strike, well, I’m sorry,” Sanders said, dripping with sarcasm, and added, “I just didn’t know that it’s okay to simply attack another country with bombs, just a limited strike — that’s an act of warfare.”
Sanders added that “the war in Iraq, Margaret was a disaster,” and that “a war with Iran would be even worse, more loss of life never-ending war in that region, massive instability.”
Sanders also said that if Trump “attacks Iran, in my view, that would be unconstitutional.”
“So if you are commander-in-chief, you will ask Congress for permission before you engage in any kind of military action?” Brennan asked.
“No, no, look, there are some times emergency situations, okay?” Sanders replied. “That I understand.”
Sanders also excoriated Trump for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, which he said was “extraordinarily provocative toward Iran,” and for “loving the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia.”
“So, how would President Sanders resolve this?” Brennan asked.
Sanders conceded that Iran poses a difficult problem, and told Brennan “I would say to Iran, I would say to Saudi Arabia, I would say to Israel, I would say to the other countries in that region, ‘you know what, you have been at war in one way or another for decade after decade after decade. And by the wars have not only impacted your own people. They have impacted the United States to the tune of trillions of dollars and five thousand lost lives. We will play a role in bringing you together. And if you need economic aid, we will provide the economic aid. We will provide the resources, but we are not simply going to give more and more weaponry to Saudi Arabia, to Israel.'”
“We’ve are going to try to bring people together for what I admit, Margaret, I admit it will not be easy, but that’s what the role of I think the US should be, not simply to be part of the Saudi war efforts in the region,” Sanders concluded.
Watch the clip above, via CBS News.
