Earl sanders

At the Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders took former Vice President Joe Biden to task for his support of the war in Iraq during the Bush administration.

Sanders said he never believed what he was told by the Bush administration about the war and made every effort to stop the armed conflict from happening.

“The war in Iraq turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said. “As Joe well knows, we lost 4,500 brave troops. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. We have spent trillions of dollars on that endless war, money which should go into health care and education and infrastructure in this country.”

“Joe and I listened to what Dick Cheney and George Bush and [Donald] Rumsfeld had to say,” Sanders continued. “I thought they were lying. I didn’t believe them for a moment.”

“I took to the floor,” Sanders added. “I did everything I could to prevent that war. Joe saw it differently.”

Sanders’ comments came after Biden expressed his view that his vote to authorize military force in Iraq in 2002 was a “mistake.”

“I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn’t get inspectors into Iraq to stop what was thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “It was a mistake and I acknowledge that.”

Biden said he would only send troops into battle “very, very reluctantly” and then, only for the right reason.

“We should not send anyone anywhere unless the overwhelming vital interests of the United States are at stake,” Biden said. “They were not at stake [in Afghanistan]. They were not at stake in Iraq and it was a mistake in vote. But I think my record overall, on everything we’ve done, I’m ready to compare it to anybody’s on this stage.”

Biden has told reporters that he was in opposition to the Iraq War from its inception, saying that he opposed President George W. Bush’s decisions.

“From the moment ‘shock and awe’ started,” Biden said during the Democratic debate in July 2019, “from that moment I was opposed to the effort and I was outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and the administration.”

Before the decision to invade Iraq was made, Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 2002, Biden voted to allow the usage of military force against Iraq.

“It is appalling that after 18 years Joe Biden still refuses to admit he was dead wrong on the Iraq War,” said senior adviser to Bernie Sanders’ campaign Jeff Weaver in a Saturday statement. “Unlike 23 of his Senate colleagues who got it right, Biden made explicitly clear that he was voting for war, and even after the war started, he boasted that he didn’t regret it.”

Wall Street investment firm BlackRock sent a letter to its clients Tuesday claiming that sustainability would now be the core value regarding its investments. But Senator Bernie Sanders wants the company to do more than that.

“BlackRock, the largest Wall Street investment firm in the world, says today that it will focus on environmental sustainability,” Sanders tweeted. “It can start by ending its investments in destroying the Amazon rainforest. Funding the slashing and burning of our planet’s lungs is a disgrace.”

Newsweek reached out to BlackRock for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Embedded within the tweet is a video from the Sanders campaign which claims “BlackRock, the largest investment firm in the world, invests $1.6 billion in rainforest-destroying companies, like palm oil, cattle, and paper interests.”

In the video, BlackRock is also said to be “empowering” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies which “encouraged slashing and burning of the rainforest for profit.”

“The rainforest in the Amazon is the lungs of the planet,” Sanders says in the video. “They are absorbing carbon dioxide. They are producing oxygen. You destroy that, you impact not only the people of Brazil but of the entire planet.”

“This is not an American issue, it’s not a Brazilian issue, it’s not a German issue or a Russian issue,” Sanders continued. “We have got to go forward as a planet to transform our energy system. We are in it together.”

“The same forces that are behind Wall Street greed are the same folks that are contributing to our climate crisis and destroying our earth,” says Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib in the video. “Big financial giants like BlackRock are using our hard-earned money and taking it and destroying our rainforest and it’s important for us to know what this is. This is corporate greed, which is a disease that is destroying our earth and destroying our planet and it’s important for us to stand up against this and join folks like Senator Sanders and fight back.”

Sanders’ video was released the same day as the first Democratic debate of 2020 during which Sanders is expected to talk about his Green New Deal, an environmental plan that has been a cornerstone of his campaign.

Under the Green New Deal, Sanders has made “reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization of the economy of 2050 at [the] latest” a goal, according to Sanders’ website.

Sanders has also said he will declare climate change a national emergency, establish a “reimagined and expanded” Civilian Conservation Corps and end unemployment through the creation of 20 million jobs.

While BlackRock did express its desire to move towards investment in sustainable energy, the letter to clients did explain there would be a period of transition.

“As we move to a low-carbon world, investment exposure to the global economy will mean exposure to hydrocarbons for some time,” read the letter. “While the low-carbon transition is well underway, the technological and economic realities mean that the transition will take decades. Global economic development, particularly in emerging markets, will continue to rely on hydrocarbons for a number of years. As a result, the portfolios we manage will continue to hold exposures to the hydrocarbon economy as the transition advances.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign has garnered significant support since it was formally announced on February 19, 2019.

A perusal of Sanders’s rhetoric and campaign proposals reveals that he wants to implement policies that he believes will, according to his campaign website, “achieve economic, racial, social and environmental justice for all.”

Sanders has been the junior senator from Vermont since 2007, but before that he represented the state in the House of Representatives and was the mayor of Burlington, the state’s largest city. Although he is seeking the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party and caucuses with Democrats, in Congress Sanders’ in an independent. In 2016, he ran an unsuccessful campaign to win the nomination over Hillary Clinton, who subsequently lost the electoral vote to now-President Donald Trump.

Sanders describes himself as a “democratic socialist,” the only presidential candidate to do so. In a speech delivered at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. on June 12, 2019, he made the case for democratic socialism and explained what it means to him.

“If there was ever a moment when we needed a new vision to bring our people together in the fight for justice, decency and human dignity, this is that time,” he said in the speech. “Today in the second decade of the 21st century, we must take up the unfinished business of the New Deal and carry it to completion. … We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights. That is what I mean by democratic socialism.”

Among the cornerstone policies Sanders supports is Medicare for All, a national health insurance plan for all Americans. As he tweeted on the day of his 2020 campaign announcement, Sanders believes that the U.S. government should “guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.”

The senator has supported climate change legislation in the past, and is a proponent of the Green New Deal, a proposed package of legislation meant to combat climate change and wealth inequality simultaneously.

According to Sanders’ campaign website, among the goals the candidate has with the Green New Deal is to “[c]ommit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.”

Sanders also supports the right of workers to unionize and has taken a stand against what he sees as corporate greed, and has often decried the “one percent” for hoarding money to themselves and exerting undue influence in politics by donating to candidates who will protect their interests. His policies call for a complete ban on corporate contributions to the Democratic National Convention and “all related committees.”

His message appears to have resonated with employees of massive corporations like Amazon, whose workers have donated a significant sum of money to the campaign in the months since it was launched.

Sanders has also pledged to tackle the student debt crisis, and has introduced a plan to eliminate all $1.6 trillion of Americans’ outstanding student loans.

A full run-down of Sanders’s policy stances can be found on his campaign’s website .

Sanders takes the debate stage on Tuesday, along with fellow candidates senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Vice President Joe Biden. The Iowa caucuses to decide whom the state’s voters will nominate to represent the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election are set to take place on February 3.

Bernie Sanders said his running mate will not be an “old white guy” should he win the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

The Vermont senator told The New York Times Editorial Board in an election endorsement interview that it was “a little bit premature” to name a running mate, with the first nominating contest in Iowa still 21 days away.

But he did confirm that the vice president in any Sanders White House would “not be an old white guy” and discounted the chances of former Vice President Joe Biden, saying his eight years in the office were “probably enough.”

Sanders also told the Times Editorial Board he would consider following President Donald Trump by releasing a short list of potential Supreme Court picks before making a nomination.

Asked who was on his running mate shortlist, the Vermont senator said: “All right, let me just say this. I think it’s a little bit premature. It will not be an old white guy.”

“I think Joe [Biden] has had eight years as vice president: probably enough,” Sanders added. “I believe in diversity. I believe and know that my administration and my cabinet will look like America looks like. I’m not going to tell you who it’s going to be.”

The second place Democratic primary candidate said his team “haven’t considered” who would be vice president in his administration, but added: “The country is long overdue for the kind of diversity that we’re going to bring to the White House.”

Although Sanders declined to say who he would pick as his running mate, the Vermont senator has previously said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York would have a “very important role” in his White House, should he win the presidency.

Politico also reported in December that people around Sanders believed his fellow Democratic primary candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren was a “likely choice” for his running mate.

Speaking to the Times Editorial Board about who he would keep in mind for nominations to the Supreme Court, Sanders said they would have to be “100 percent” in favor of Roe v. Wade —the 1973 decision that established abortion as a constitutional right.

He further said any Supreme Court nominee under a Sanders presidency would be “somebody who understands [the] plight of the working class in this country,” adding that they would have to be “prepared to stand up to the power of corporate interests.”

“Got to kind of win the nomination first. I’m kind of struggling to do that. And I want to do that,” Sanders said when asked if he would release a shortlist of possible Supreme Court nominees.

“But you know, it’s not a bad idea. It’s a reasonable idea. My wife agrees with you. Yeah. I’ll take that into consideration. Nothing wrong with that.”

Getty

Deion Sanders is going after Nick Saban … calling the Alabama coach a liar for claiming Jackson State University — where Prime is the head coach — paid one of its top players $1 million to sign with their program … then bragged about it!

Sanders was pissed after a clip made rounds on social media, where Saban accused the up-and-coming program of signing good players by paying them off … and then boasting about it to the media.

You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told tomorrow. I was & awakened by my son @ShedeurSanders that sent me the article stating that WE PAYED @TravisHunterJr a Million to play at @GoJSUTigersFB ! We as a PEOPLE don’t have to pay our PEOPLE to play with our PEOPLE.

— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) May 19, 2022 @DeionSanders

“You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told tomorrow,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “I was & awakened by my son @ShedeurSanders that sent me the article stating that WE PAYED @TravisHunterJr a Million to play at @GoJSUTigersFB!”

“We as a PEOPLE don’t have to pay our PEOPLE to play with our PEOPLE,” he added.

Of course, coach Prime is referring to Saban’s claim that JSU signed one of its marquee players, Travis Hunter , by giving him $1 million to commit to the HBCU.

Twitter / @jlightsy7

“We have a rule right now that says you cannot use name, image, and likeness to entice a player to come to your school,” Saban said. “Hell, read about it in the paper.”

“I mean Jackson State paid a guy a million dollars last year that was a really good Division 1 player to come to school — it was in the paper, and then bragged about it. Nobody did anything about it.”

Saban didn’t stop at JSU, though … the legendary coach also went after Texas A&M University, accusing the school of “buying every player on their team,” thanks to NIL deals.

“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” Saban told an audience at an Alabama booster event. “A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right?”

Ultimately, Saban, who’s won 7 national championships, feels that coaches are trying to tip the scales of power through NIL deals — something he thinks could become even more problematic in the future.