Biden slams Trump on Soleimani strike: ‘He flat-out lied’

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night accused President Trump of “flat-out” lying about the justification for killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an action that brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war. 

Biden criticized Trump at the Democratic debate in Des Moines for putting the U.S. in a position of having to abandon an American troop presence in Iraq to counter the threat against ISIS.

“Quite frankly, I think he’s flat-out lied about saying, the reason he made the strike [on Soleimani] was because our embassies were about to be bombed.”

Trump and senior administration officials have shifted on their reasoning behind the killing of Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force.

They’ve said the strike was to prevent an “imminent attack” but have failed to provide any evidence or explanation of the nature of the threat. Lawmakers have also expressed frustration about administration briefings on the strike.

 

More recently, Trump and other officials have pointed to Soleimani’s past actions to justify the strike.

Trump on Monday tweeted that any imminent threat Soleimani posed “doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!”

Biden further criticized the president as alienating the U.S. from its allies in working to contain Iran’s ambitions to go after a nuclear weapon and called for going “back into the agreement,” referencing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by the Obama administration.  

“We have lost our standing in the region, we have lost the support of our allies. The next president has to be able to pull those folks back together, reestablish our alliances and insist Iran go back into the agreement, which I believe, pressure applied that we put on before, we can get done.”

Trump in May 2018 pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran and has since instituted a campaign of “maximum pressure” aimed at getting Iran to end its support for terrorism, give up its nuclear ambitions and improve its human rights records.