Kucinich: Hillary's Foreign Policy 'Goes Beyond Bad Judgment'

PHILADELPHIA — Former Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich said Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy “has not served the country well” and “goes beyond bad judgment.”

Kucinich also offered his opinion of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) as Clinton’s vice president, telling PJM it was a “calculated” pick to ensure a Democratic win in Virginia.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was asked about GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump saying Clinton has demonstrated bad judgment.

“It goes beyond bad judgment. There was a calculated effort to knock off that government without thinking about the consequences. We knocked off Libya without thinking about the consequence. We knocked off Iraq without thinking about the consequence,” Kucinich told PJM in an interview at the Democratic National Convention.

“What do I know about this? I led the effort in the Congress in both cases to stop those wars and I warned people what was going to happen. And Secretary Clinton, fine lady she is, has a foreign policy that has not served this country well. Hopefully, as the nominee of the party, she will have an opportunity to correct her course,” he added.

PJM also asked Kucinich if he agreed with Trump’s call to temporarily ban travel to the U.S. from nations with the presence of Islamic terrorist groups.

“If we want to diminish terrorism in the world, stop funding it. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States and other countries have unfortunately been responsible for foreign policy choices that have put this country at risk. Stop funding people who are going on jihad; that then starts to reduce the pressure. You don’t have people refugees if they’re not forced to flee their homeland because jihadis are being funded by these other nations. So that’s number one,” he responded.

“Number two — we have to realize that U.S. foreign policy in particular, what we did in Iraq, what we did in Libya and what we are doing in Syria has the potential for blowback. You cannot bomb other countries and not expect people are going to find a way to get back at you,” Kucinich added. “So if we stop funding it, if we stop these wars and then we have every right to be secure here at home, but focus on funding local law enforcement organizations instead of spending trillions that actually end up being counterproductive.”

Watch the interview on the next page.