In a rare offensive move, Bernie Sanders slams Hillary Clinton on same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights.
Bernie Sanders took a swing at Hillary Clinton Saturday night, hitting the Democratic frontrunner on same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights, along with her vote to authorize the Iraq War, the Keystone Pipeline, and her recent announcement that she opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
While not mentioning Clinton by name, Sanders’ comments at the annual and influential Jefferson–Jackson Day Dinner in Iowa were among his strongest against Clinton.
“Today, some are trying to rewrite history by saying they voted for one anti-gay law to stop something worse. That’s not the case,” Sanders accused, implying Hillary Clinton voted for DOMA and DADT, which she did not as she was then First Lady and not yet a Senator. “Let us be clear. That’s just not true,” Sanders insisted, touting himself among the “small minority opposed to discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters. Not everybody held that position in 1996.”
“I promise you tonight as your president I will govern based on principle not poll numbers,” he said, to cheers.
Clinton Friday had said her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, signed anti-LGBT laws like DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, and DADT, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, into law to avoid a growing movement in the country during his presidency to make bans on same-sex marriage and open-service by LGBT people permanent amendments to the Constitution.
Attacking Clinton for her vote in the Senate on the Iraq War, Sanders said it gave him “no joy to tell you that much of what I predicted about Iraq turned out to be right.”
“That was a tough vote. I came to that fork in the road, and I took the right road even if if was not popular at that time,” he said. Clinton had voted for the war in Iraq.
The Vermont Independent Senator also hit the former Secretary of State on the Keystone Pipeline.
“If you agree with me about the urgent need to address climate change, then you would know immediately what to do about the Keystone pipeline. It was not a complicated issue,” he told the Iowa Democratic audience of about 6600.
And on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Barack Obama supports, Sanders hit Clinton for her recent move to oppose it, after she championed her work on it when she was Secretary of State.
“I did not support it yesterday. I do not support it today. And I will not support it tomorrow,” he promised.
Sanders’ speech begins at about the 2:50 mark in the video above.
Â
Image via IowaDemocraticParty/Twitter