WASHINGTON _ Sen. Bernie Sanders has added a direct assault on President Donald Trump over his handling of the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to the top of his campaign stump speech.
"He's a tough guy when it comes to presenting a budget that cuts nutrition programs for low-income pregnant women _ really tough guy. But, ain't so tough taking on the dictator of Saudi Arabia who has his dissidents murdered in cold blood," Sanders said Thursday evening.
That came near the top of remarks by Sanders at a rally hosted by the Nevada State Democratic Party in support of candidates for state and federal office. The characterization of the Saudi royal family came just after a similar line about Trump and Russia, in which Sanders paired a domestic policy contrast with what he views as a foreign policy weakness on the part of the president.
"You know that we have a president who claims to be a very tough guy because he is prepared to tear little babies from their arms at the Southern border," the Vermont senator said. "But he ain't so tough when it comes to taking on Vladimir Putin."
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate who sounds very much like he's going to make another run for the White House in 2020, took the stage at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts after several Nevada Democrats on the ballot this fall, headlined by Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is challenging Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada's Toss-up Senate race.
Rosen introduced Sanders, who was in Reno earlier in the day.
Also among the speakers were incumbent Democratic Rep. Dina Titus and former Rep. Steven Horsford, who is seeking to keep the sprawling 4th Congressional District in the Democratic column.
"I'm running for Congress because we need a check on the chaos coming from this administration," Horsford said Thursday.
