“Quite frankly, I think he’s flat-out lied about saying, the reason he made the strike (on General Soleimani) was because our embassies were about to be bombed,” Biden said on Tuesday at the Democratic debate in Des Moines
Trump and senior administration officials have shifted on their reasoning behind the killing of General Soleimani.
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.
Trump on Monday tweeted that any imminent threat Gen. Soleimani posed “doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!”
Biden further criticized the US president as alienating the US from its allies and called for going “back into the agreement,” referencing the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
“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 so-called campaign of “maximum pressure”.