Bernie Sanders Defends Stance On Foreign Policy After Paris Attack And Pulls Ahead Of Clinton In Latest Poll
Senator Bernie Sanders is making major moves this week to prove that he is better qualified to be Commander-in-Chief than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In an interview Tuesday with Yahoo Global News anchor Katie Couric, Sanders was forced to defend his stance on foreign policy, which many people believe is a weak point for the presidential hopeful after his performance in the second Democratic debate.
The Paris terrorist attack, which took place roughly 24 hours before the debate held in Iowa, put somewhat of a negative light on Sanders, who doesn’t speak on issues abroad very often. Following the debate, foreign policy was widely perceived as a weakness for Sanders. However, the senator is determined to prove just the opposite, ABC News reports.
When Couric asked Sanders about the reports questioning his strength on foreign policy, the Senator seemed to take offense.
“Oh really,” he said. “Well compared to whom?”
Sanders continued by attributing the problems today to the war in Iraq, which he says he led the opposition against.
“Many of the serious problems we face in the Gulf region and the Middle East are, in fact, attributable to the war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into. And it is not only that I voted against it – and Secretary Clinton voted for it – I helped lead the opposition against it.”
So far, Bernie Sanders’ strategy for the fight against ISIS has been focused on coalition building. The Vermont senator sticks by his argument that in order to succeed, the U.S. needs to work with countries like Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
“We should be working with the Russians and with others in a coordinated effort to destroy ISIS and not everyone doing it alone,” he told Couric.
“I want to be smart. I don’t want to see young men and women coming home in caskets. I don’t want to see us spending trillions of dollars on a war. I want to see the entire world coming together and I want to see the Muslim nations on the ground.”
Sanders did, however, admit that building such a coalition would be quite a challenge.
“This coalition is a tough one to bring together, because you have Saudi Arabia, which hates Iran; you’ve got Russia, which obviously has a lot of differences of opinion with the United States,” he said.
The interview with Couric is not the only move Sanders made this week to help improve himself after the debate. He also gave a speech at Georgetown University in Washington.
Although criticized, Bernie Sanders’ performance in the last debate does not seem to have bothered the American public at all. The latest poll shows the senator performing just ahead of Clinton.
According to the Washington Times, the latest poll from early state New Hampshire revealed a very close race, with Sanders at 45 percent and Clinton at 44 percent. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who is also running for a Democratic nomination, received just 5 percent.
The same poll, which was released by Fox News on Wednesday, revealed Clinton’s performance against a few of the Republican contenders. Secretary of State and businesswoman Carly Fiorina tied at 43 percent each. Clinton appears to be ahead of popular businessman Donald Trump by seven points, ahead of Texas Senator Ted Cruz by three points, and ahead of New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie by one point. However, she is behind Florida Governor Jeb Bush by three points, neurosurgeon Ben Carson by two points, Florida Senator Marco Rubio by seven points, and Ohio Governor John Kasich by three points.
These results, which do indeed show a lead for Bernie Sanders, were taken from a survey conducted from November 15-17, after the Democratic debate and the attacks in Paris.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
