11, March 2019
US: Sentor Sanders says Trump ‘does not know the difference between truth and lies’ 0
US Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced he is running for president again in the 2020 elections, has lashed out at US President Donald Trump, calling him a “pathological liar,” who “embarrasses” the United States daily.
Speaking at a campaign rally in in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday, the Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, accused the president of constantly defending authoritarianism, and added that Trump “does not know the difference between truth and lies.”
“As many of you know, all over the world today, there is a great struggle taking place between a growing or authoritarianism and democracy. And Trump is consistently on the wrong side of that struggle,” he said.
“Time and time again he has words of praise and affection for those leaders who despise democracy, while picking fights with longtime democratic allies. Democracy is about serious debate over public policy, not having a president who is a pathological liar and has told thousands of blatant lies since he is in office,” he stated.
“Now I don’t care, people in a democracy have different points of view — and all of us have conservative friends that we argue –we have a debate. But it is not acceptable to me and I think not acceptable to vast majority of the American people no matter what their political perspective is, that we have a president who simply does not know the difference between truth and lies,” he added.
Sanders continued that “Trump told the world very clearly how he feels about democracy and dissent, when he refused to criticize Saudi Arabia after that despotic regime murdered a journalist in cold blood.”
The 77-year-old lawmaker described as beyond disgraceful Trump’s reference to the American media as enemies of the people.
The Vermont senator stressed that such attitude is that of a demagogue who instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, claims that what everyone is saying about him is a lie.
Sanders, who has been a relentless critic of Trump, has also called him “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
“We are running against a president who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” Sanders said in an email to Reuters last month after announced his 2020 election campaign.
Trump has in turn railed against what he claims is the Democratic Party’s turn to socialism, citing the rising popularity of Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both self-proclaimed democratic socialists.
Sanders
A former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders won a US House of Representatives seat in 1990, making him the first independent elected to the House in 40 years. In 2006, he won a US Senate seat and in 2018 was voted in for a third six-year term.
Sanders made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2016, losing out to Hillary Clinton, who was in turn defeated by Trump.
His call for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education has gained huge strong support among young liberals.
He mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton as he spoke to swelling crowds and garnered passionate support on social media. His 2016 campaign also rejected the use of corporate money and instead relied on small-dollar donations.
Presstv
11, March 2019
Iran’s Rouhani arrives in Iraq on first official visit 0
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit, state television said, as Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour. Before leaving Tehran Rouhani hailed the “special” relations between Iran and Iraq, saying they could not be compared to Baghdad’s ties “with an aggressor country like America”.
His visit to Iraq is the first since he became president in 2013. “Iran-Iraq relations are special,” Rouhani said at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport before flying to Baghdad, Iranian state television reported, adding that Tehran was always ready to help its neighbours.
“America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten,” he added. Baghdad has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions.
Iraq was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, with Washington calling on Baghdad to partner with US companies to become energy independent. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables.
Iran has close but complicated relations with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran’s influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein.
Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured second city Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk.
Tehran dispatched “military advisors” and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders.
Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country.
During the visit, Rouhani is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Saleh, as well as the country’s chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government’s website. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif preceded Rouhani to Iraq to prepare for the visit.
AFP