Clinton to Europe: I told you so

Following the shocking violence in Brussels early this morning, we have found ourselves in an all-too-familiar loop of concern and rage, but, more than anything, deep sorrow for those who were victims in this vicious attack.

When the candidates responses were released, all of the Republican statements were more of the same knee-jerk aggression they have been espousing for years. Donald Trump’s rhetoric in particular was as predictable as it was horrible and he offered it as soon as he was able. We’ve learned to disregard his rambling foreign policies as desperately lost to violence, exclusion, and retribution. We were surprised and dismayed when we heard the echoing of this vitriol coming out from Hillary Clinton. Her first statement to this heinous attack included the following, “(W)hen I was Secretary of State, we often had some difficulties with our European friends because they were reluctant to impose the kind of strict standards we were looking for.”

To us at Grassroots for Sanders and to many others, this was pretty much a declaration of “I told you so” — thirty people are now dead as Belgium became the recipient of a horrid attack and all she can muster is, “See what you did to yourself?” That’s unbecoming of any potential United States president, and even more disappointing by the one banking on her foreign policy experience.

Incredibly, as part of her first reactions to this morning’s news on NBC, the frontrunner of the Democratic Party shared the same points of view as Trump. While he is getting eviscerated by the corporate media for his comments, those same outlets are letting Clinton ride without so much as a single criticism. We think that this kind of disconnect, both hers and those reporting on events, is something that should concern not only American citizens, but people around the world. An attack on our friends cannot be part of this argument where people come after policy. Both Trump and Clinton are clearly espousing the same response, and they both should be admonished for it.

Just a few hours later Clinton doubled-down on her statement as she went on to repeat this recrimination of our allies on CNN: “I have experience as secretary of state urging European nations to toughen their laws. There’s been some progress, but I would respectfully say, not enough”.

Solidarity can be expressed in many ways. “I told you so” is definitely not one of them.