Debating nine of her rivals for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made her case again for a U.S. policy against first use of nuclear weapons.
“The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, and we need to say so to the entire world. It reduces the likelihood that someone miscalculates, someone misunderstands,” Warren said during the CNN debate in Detroit. “Our first responsibility is to keep ourselves safe. And what’s happening right now with Donald Trump is they keep expanding the different ways that we have nuclear weapons, the different ways that they could be used puts us all at risk.”
The second-term senator has made no-first-use a prominent component of her national security platform, introducing legislation in January that would make it “the policy of the United States to not use nuclear weapons first.”
Asked to respond to Warren’s statement during the debate, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said he opposes a no-first-use policy.
“I wouldn’t want to take that off the table. I think America’s strength — we have to be able to say that,” he said. “Look, never, I hope, certainly in my term or anyone else, would we really even get close to pulling that trigger. … But going from the position of strength, we should be negotiating down so there aren’t nuclear weapons. But drawing those lines in the sand, at this point I wouldn’t do.”
Warren countered that the United States needs a nuclear policy “the entire world can live with.” She indicated that should involve readiness to respond with nuclear force to an adversary’s nuclear strike.
A powerful deterrent is crucial, Bullock said in response. “I don’t want to turn around and say, ‘Well, Detroit has to be gone before we would ever use that.’ When so many crazy folks are getting closer to having a nuclear weapon, I don’t want them to think I could strike this country and I and we as the United States of America wouldn’t do a thing.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) attempted to join the back-and-forth on the topic, but was cut off by moderator Don Lemon.
The 10 candidates otherwise spent little time discussing nuclear security and proliferation issues during the Tuesday debate.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) criticized President Donald Trump for withdrawing the United States from the multilateral agreement intended to curb Iran’s nuclear program, along with taking the country “out of the Russian nuclear agreement.”
Klobuchar did not say which Russian nuclear agreement she was discussing. The Trump administration is scheduled today to formally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibits the United States and Russia from deploying nuclear- or conventionally armed missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
National security adviser John Bolton has also said repeatedly the White House is leaning against a five-year extension to the New START accord, which limits Russia and the United States to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons and 700 long-range delivery systems. The treaty will expire on Feb. 5, 2021, without the authorized extension.
The remaining 10 Democratic Party candidates debated on Wednesday, again in Detroit. Nuclear arms issues received even less attention in the second event, overshadowed by climate change and other issues.
“Now, Donald Trump and warmongering politicians in Washington have failed us. They continue to escalate tensions with other nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China and North Korea, starting a new Cold War, pushing us closer and closer to the brink of nuclear catastrophe,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said.
The United States would have just 30 minutes before nuclear missiles hit in an enemy attack, Gabbard said. She noted the January 2018 false alert in which Hawaii’s citizenry was erroneously warned of an incoming ballistic missile strike.
