Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday denounced the use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, but he said Congress must focus on high unemployment and other problems at home while the United States works with the international community on the Middle East.
“The calls that are coming into my office are overwhelmingly against getting involved in a bloody and complicated civil war in Syria,” Sanders told Alex Witt on Sunday on MSNBC.
“The American people are profoundly disgusted with the fact that the United States Congress continues to ignore the enormously serious problems facing the middle class of this country; real unemployment close to 14 percent, youth unemployment even higher than that, and poverty at an almost all-time high."
"What the American people are saying is that we were in war in Afghanistan, we were in a war in Iraq, we've lost thousands of soldiers and spent trillions of dollars. How about coming home and addressing the crisis facing the American people?"
“Everybody understands that Assad is a horrendous dictator and the use of chemical weapons is beyond words. It's totally disgusting. What we need is the world community to come together to address that issue and other issues in the Middle East. But the American people are saying two wars are enough. Let's come home and address our serious problems.”
Near the end of the segment, Sanders lamented that Congress isn't acting on the needs of the American people, citing low approval polls, and said that there are members who "can't even walk and chew bubble-gum at the same time."
