Fox News contributor Dan Bongino reacted Monday to Democrats who criticized the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani by asking party members: "What team are you on?"
“The Democrats and some in the media, the reaction to the killing of this savage, one of the most dangerous men in the world has been an abomination,” Bongino, a former NYPD officer, said on “Fox & Friends”. “It makes you seriously ask the question, what team are you on?”
Outspoken Democrats wasted little time in denouncing President Trump's warning to Iran over possible retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani and six others at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called the president a “monster.”
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted: “Soleimani was responsible for unthinkable violence and [the] world is better off without him.
“But Congress didn’t authorize and American people don’t want a war with Iran. All steps must now be taken to protect our forces against the almost inevitable escalation and increased risk.”
Schiff’s statement was echoed by other Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“You have to remember, it’s not just American blood this savage was bathed in, it’s regional blood as well, whether it was Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, this was a force for instability and insecurity around the entire world,” Bongino said on Monday.
He added, “Just to be clear on this, so you don’t think anybody here is speaking with forked tongue, I don’t remember after Barack Obama ordered the killing, thankfully, of Usama bin Laden, which was a successful operation for the United States [and] the world, I don’t remember anyone talking [and saying], ‘Well, was bin Laden an imminent threat? Did we dangerously escalate the situation?’”
“You know who dangerously escalated the situation?" Bongino contiued. "This Iranian savage we just killed when he decided it was a good idea to attack our embassy."
U.S. officials described the killing of Soleimani as a defensive measure to prevent an “imminent attack” on U.S. interests following an assault by Iran-backed militiamen against the American Embassy in Baghdad days earlier.
“We have 600 dead American servicemen buried underground whose families lost them, who died heroically because of this savage,” Bongino noted on Monday. “We already had an attack on our embassy that if it wasn’t quelled by brave U.S. patriots in our military could have resulted in another Benghazi-like situation.”
“If they [Democrats] start going down this road, blaming everything now from this point on President Trump, it will just be another disturbing, gross episode in the history of a now-broken Democrat party on foreign policy," he added.
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"It’s really unbelievable that the world is now a safer place because of the brave decisions of our military and President Trump and we just can’t all take a victory lap and say, ‘OK, what do we do together going forward?’" Bongino concluded. "That whole idea of 'politics ends at the water’s edge' is sadly dead and gone. It’s really disturbing.”
Brie Stimson contributed to this report.