Bernie Sanders Wants Congress to Stop Trump’s Nuclear Plans

In a tweet Friday, Vermont Senator and former U.S. Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called on Congress to stop U.S. President-elect Donald Trump from instigating a Cold War-era nuclear arms race.

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"It's a miracle a nuclear weapon hasn't been used in war since 1945," he tweeted. "Congress can't allow the Tweeter in Chief to start a nuclear arms race."

It was in response to a tweet Trump had posted earlier that many interpreted as possibly challenging the Soviet Union, as Russian Premier Vladimir Putin had tweeted similarly hours earlier.

"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes," Trump’s tweet read.

As his tirade of reckless tweeting continues, many are weighing in to say that Trump’s tweets have many repercussions.

“To make such a loaded statement without context or follow-up is irresponsible at best,” Laicie Heeley, a nuclear expert at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan anti-nuclear proliferation think tank in Washington told AFP. “We could be talking about a return to the Cold War here, when the threat of a nuclear catastrophe was very real.”

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In response to the tweet, Trump was asked to clarify what he meant in an interview with MSNBC.

“Let it be an arms race,” he reportedly told co-host Mika Brzezinski, in a telephone call.

Minutes after, his secretary Sean Spicer clarified Trump’s remarks in several television interviews.

“He’s going to ensure that other countries get the message that he’s not going to sit back and allow that,” Spicer told NBC. “And what’s going to happen is they will come to their senses, and we will all be just fine."