Chafee: Clinton’s support for Iraq war makes her unfit for White House

by Mark Hensch - 04/19/15 6:00 AM ET

Former Rhode Island Gov. and U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (D) on Sunday declared 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unfit for tackling the global chaos presidents face.

“Everything is falling apart all across many regions of the world,” Chafee told host John Catsimatidis on his show “The Cats Roundtable” in New York.

“There’s a lot of repair work to be done out there,” said Chafee, himself a potential 2016 Democratic candidate for the White House.

{mosads}“I would argue the best person to do that repair work is certainly not someone who made the mistake of voting in favor of invading Iraq,” Chafee added of Clinton’s record. “It’s going to be much more difficult to do that repair work with that on your resume.”

The second Iraq War, Chafee charged, had created many of the problems America’s confronting overseas in 2015 and beyond.

“It’s a big reason we’re seeing all this instability,” he said. “Senator Clinton voted in favor of it. You have to back up to a lapse of judgment in 2002.”

Chafee’s criticism comes as he ponders challenging Clinton for the party’s 2016 nomination. The former governor said that should he run, he already has a strategy for dealing with the volatile Middle East.

“Let’s go back to what worked when we won the Cold War,” Chafee urged. That era, he continued, featured “strong alliances, working hard to get more and better friends” and containing threats.

“Containment worked,” he said.

Clinton announced her 2016 candidacy in a video last Sunday. She is thus far the Democrats’ only major official White House contender next election cycle.

GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) are the Republicans officially racing towards the Oval Office next year. Rubio is the most recent entrant, having declared his bid last Monday in Miami.

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