Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) refused during a CNN interview on Sunday to commit to killing top terrorists if elected as president, and later promoted a debunked conspiracy theory about why President Donald Trump authorized the strike that killed Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani.

Warren, who made the remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper, also falsely claimed that the Trump’s action in killing Soleimani represented an “assassination.”

“So, you called the U.S. attack that killed Qasem Soleimani a quote ‘assassination,'” Tapper said. “President Ford issued an executive order in ’76 to make political assassinations illegal. Are you saying that this strike was a violation of law?”

“Look, it was a targeted attack on a government official, a high-ranking military official for the government of Iran,” Warren responded. “And what it’s done has moved this country closer to war. We are not safer today than we were before Donald Trump acted.”

Columnist, attorney, and Iraq war veteran David French debunked this false claim last week, tweeting, “I’m seeing a lot of people calling the strike on [Soleimani] an ‘assassination.’ Some are even bringing up Reagan’s EO 12333, prohibiting assassinations. Killing an enemy commander, in a war zone, with a military strike conducted under the law of war is not an ‘assassination.'”

I'm seeing a lot of people calling the strike on Suleimani an "assassination." Some are even bringing up Reagan's EO 12333, prohibiting assassinations. Killing an enemy commander, in a war zone, with a military strike conducted under the law of war is not an "assassination." — David French (@DavidAFrench) January 3, 2020

Tapper continued by noting that Soleimani was a terrorist and had been considered a terrorist by the United States for decades.

“As president, would you not prioritize the U.S. military killing the leaders of organizations designated terrorist organizations?” Tapper asked.

Warren refused to answer the question.

Warren refuses to prioritize killing terrorist leaders if electedhttps://t.co/lYRBJPPihZ pic.twitter.com/S2Jv3hnJfZ — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 5, 2020

Warren then proceeded to push a debunked conspiracy theory about why Trump decided to strike Soleimani, falsely suggesting that it was because he was trying to distract from impeachment.

“I think the question that we ought to focus on is, why now? Why not a month ago? Why not a month from now?” Warren said. “And the answer from the administration seems to be, they can’t keep their story straight on this. They have pointed in all different directions.”

“So what happens right now? Next week, the president of the United States could be facing an impeachment trial in the Senate,” Warren continued. “We know he’s deeply upset about that. And I think people are reasonably asking, why this moment? Why does he pick now to take this highly inflammatory, highly dangerous action that moves us closer to war?”

WATCH:

Warren pushes far left conspiracy that Soleimani strike was distraction from impeachmenthttps://t.co/LqlVymBv0G pic.twitter.com/Bbfg2BmELo — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 5, 2020

There is plenty of evidence that debunks Warren’s claims about Trump authorizing the attack because he wanted to distract from impeachment:

The first piece of evidence is that Soleimani was behind an attack last month that killed an American contractor in Iraq and was behind the recent terror attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. Those two attacks alone provided Trump with all justification that he needed to launch the strike.

The second piece of evidence stems from the first piece of evidence. The New York Times reported that Trump initially rejected the strike on Suleimani option on December 28th in response to the American contractor being killed. It was only after the attack on the U.S. Embassy that he authorized the attack.

The third piece of evidence is that Trump has tweeted about impeachment multiple times since the attack, which is not something that he would be doing if he was trying to distract from impeachment.

Here are Trump’s tweets on impeachment since the day of the attack, which include comments he has made about the Ukraine situation, since that launched the impeachment inquiry:

Christopher Bedford, The Federalist Senior Editor. “There is NOTHING NEW in these Emails at all that’s been discovered. It’s exactly what we knew before, which is that the White House & political figures wanted to cut off aid, Trump wanted to question aid to a number of…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2020

….followed, and then it was withdrawn. The Democrats argument for impeachment has not gotten stronger over the last few weeks. As Senator Josh Hawley just said, he’s going to enter a Motion to Dismiss the Impeachment Trial because it’s never actually been brought to trial.” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2020

A lot of very good people were taken down by a small group of Dirty (Filthy) Cops, politicians, government officials, and an investigation that was illegally started & that SPIED on my campaign. The Witch Hunt is sputtering badly, but still going on (Ukraine Hoax!). If this…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2020