Kerry defends Biden on Iraq War vote: Bush administration ‘broke their word’

Former Secretary of State John Kerry defended former Vice President Joe Biden’s voting record on the Iraq War, saying that the Bush administration “‘broke their word” with regard to proceedings in Iraq. 

“The fact is that we were promised by a president, by an administration, that they were going to do it as a last resort after exhausting diplomacy, that if they have to go to war it would be with a coalition that they built broadly, and that they would do it only in conjunction with our allies,” Kerry said Friday, according to NBC News.

“It was a mistake to have trusted them, I guess, and we paid a high price for it,” Kerry continued. “But that was not voting for the war.”

As the Iowa caucuses creep closer, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who opposed and voted against the Iraq War, has ratcheted up his attacks on Biden’s Iraq War voting record.

Sanders told CNN earlier this month that, “Joe Biden voted and helped lead the effort for the war in Iraq, the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country.”

Kerry, who was a surrogate on Biden’s Iowa “We Know Joe” campaign tour this week, pushed back against Sander’s claim, saying that “there was a difference in people who felt they needed to give a president the leverage to be able to get Saddam Hussein back to the table, without having to go to war.”

The former Massachusetts senator argued that Biden is a part of this distinction, saying it “didn’t mean you were in favor when the administration made the decision of actually going to war.”

The latest Des Moines Register/CNN poll has Biden fourth in Iowa behind former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sanders, though just five points separate Biden and Sanders.