Politics

Elizabeth Warren Suggests Trump Took Out Iranian General To Distract From Impeachment

Elizabeth Warren stands at a podium. By Tim Pierce from Berlin, MA, USA (Elizabeth Warren) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sen. Elizabeth Warren suggested Sunday that President Donald Trump ordered a fatal drone strike against Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in order to distract from an upcoming impeachment trial.

“Next week, the president of the United States could be facing an impeachment trial in the Senate. We know he’s deeply upset about that, and I think people are reasonably asking why this moment,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Why does he pick now to pick this highly inflammatory and highly dangerous action that moves us closer to war?”

“Are you suggesting that President Trump pulled the trigger and had Qasem Soleimani killed as a distraction from his impeachment?” asked CNN host Jake Tapper.

“I think people are reasonably asking about the timing, and why it is that the administration seems to have all kinds of different answers,” Warren replied.

Elizabeth Warren on the Qasem Soleimani strike: “I think that the question that we ought to focus on is why now? Why not a month ago and why not a month from now? And the answer from the administration seems to be that they can’t keep their story straight on this.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/3KOzhS6zzb

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 5, 2020

Trump ordered a strike against Soleimani and the leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah outside of Baghdad’s airport Thursday.

Neither Warren nor Tapper noted that U.S. officials believe Soleimani approved an attack on an Iraqi military base Dec. 27, 2019, that left one U.S. civilian contractor dead.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters Friday he is “100%” certain Soleimani approved the attack.

The State Department said Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of more than 600 U.S. service members in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East since 2003.