Joe Biden saw Iran's Clinton-era attack as 'act of war' requiring payback -- now warns Trump about 'escalatory move'

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Former Vice President Joe Biden took some heat on social media this week after an old TV clip surfaced in which Biden called a deadly Iranian attack against U.S. airmen an “act of war.”

The U.S. can “take whatever action it deems appropriate,” the then-U.S. senator told ABC's Sam Donaldson on "This Week" regarding Iran’s tanker truck bombing of the Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force military housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 airmen and injured more than 500 others.

Critics were quick to point out the difference between Biden's rhetoric back then -- when Democrat Bill Clinton was president -- and his rebuke this week of the U.S. airstrike ordered by President Trump that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani last Friday, which Biden called a “hugely escalatory move.”

"Didn't Joe just criticize President Trump for doing exactly what he states in this interview should be done?" one Twitter user wrote. "How can people stand this level of lies and hypocrisy? Either side? What have we become? Lie when it benefits you."

"Hypocrisy just comes naturally to all Democrats," another Twitter user wrote.

In his statement this week, Biden said: "President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox, and he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people and our interests, both here at home and abroad, and our partners throughout the region and beyond."

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It comes as Biden’s record as a senator on these issues has come under fresh scrutiny: While in the Senate in 1988, Biden was chairman of the Special Subcommittee on War Powers and outlined during a hearing a list of circumstances where the president “should be empowered to use force without specific authorization.”

In 1995, Biden introduced the Use of Force Act in the Senate, which allowed the president to authorize force without congressional approval under certain circumstances, including to “forestall an imminent act of international terrorism."

Biden has not made a statement on his previous remarks.