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News > World

Sanders: Clinton Should Apologize to Victims of Iraq War

  • U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a service at the Christian Cultural Center church in the Brooklyn borough of New York

    U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a service at the Christian Cultural Center church in the Brooklyn borough of New York | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 April 2016
Opinion

Democratic presidential Bernie Sanders took it out on front-runner Hillary Clinton on Wednesday over her support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

When a reporter asked Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders whether he should apologize to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting which took place in 2012, the Vermont senator quipped that Hillary Clinton should probably consider apologizing to the victims of the Iraq War.

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The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre saw 20-year-old Adam Lanza kill 20 children aged between 6 and 7 years of age, as well as six adult staff members.

The reporter confronted Sanders over a statement he made earlier in the week when he argued that gun manufacturers should not be sued by victims of gun-related violence.

Clinton has criticized Sanders in the past for his perceived stance on the issue, suggesting he might want to apologize to those affected in the Sandy Hook massacre.

“Maybe Secretary Clinton might want to apologize to the families who lost their loved ones in Iraq or Secretary Clinton might want to apologize to the millions of workers in this country who lost their jobs because of the disastrous trade agreements that she supported,” quipped Sanders.

Sanders has long been a critic of Clinton's foreign policy, calling into question her credentials to bring peace and stability to the Middle East after she voted to invade Iraq in October 2002, a war that has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the destruction of the country's infrastructure and the rise of the Islamic State group.

However, the recent accusations from the Clinton camp come in light of a new lawsuit being opened up against Freedom Group, the makers of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle used in Sandy Hook, which accuses the company of selling and marketing the product despite its unsuitability for civilian use.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Group has defended itself by evoking the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act," legislation that Sanders voted for in 2005 which absolves manufacturers of responsibility for crimes committed with their guns.

"In the same sense that if you're a gun dealer and you sell me a gun and I go out and I kill him," said Sanders during Wednesday's interview, "Do I think that that gun dealer should be sued for selling me a legal product that he misused?"

However, Bernie expressed his belief that gun manufacturers "should be able to be sue when they ... know that guns are going into the hands of the wrong people."

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