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Bernie Sanders speaks out, urging USA Congress to stop Donald Trump launching nuclear arms race

Bernie Sanders urges Congress to stop Donald Trump launching nuclear arms race Democrat speaks out after President-elect appears to reverse decade’s-old policy of disarmament, The Independent,  Charlotte England @charlottengland  Saturday 24 December 2016     Bernie Sanders has urged Congress to stop Donald Trump launching a Cold War-style nuclear arms race.

“It’s a miracle a nuclear weapon hasn’t been used in war since 1945,” the Vermont Senator said in a post on Twitter. “Congress can’t allow the Tweeter in Chief to start a nuclear arms race.”

Earlier on Friday, the US President-elect was asked to clarify the meaning behind an ambiguous tweet in an interview with MSNBC. “Let it be an arms race,” he is reported to have told co-host Mika Brzezinski,in a telephone call……..

Laicie Heeley, a nuclear expert at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan anti-nuclear proliferation think-tank in Washington, told AFP news agency it was “reckless” for Mr Trump to tweet on the topic without offering details.

“To make such a loaded statement without context or follow-up is irresponsible at best,” she said.

“We could be talking about a return to the Cold War here, when the threat of a nuclear catastrophe was very real,“ she said. ”Russian rhetoric is already moving in that direction. It wouldn’t take a lot to bring us back there.”

Minutes after Mr Trump’s follow up remarks were reported on MSNBC, his secretary Sean Spicer said in several television interviews that there would be no arms race because the President-elect would make sure that other countries trying to step up their nuclear capabilities, such as Russia and China, would decide not to participate.

“He’s going to ensure that other countries get the message that he’s not going to sit back and allow that,” Mr Spicer told NBC. “And what’s going to happen is they will come to their senses, and we will all be just fine.”…….http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bernie-sanders-urges-congress-to-stop-donald-trump-launching-nuclear-arms-race-a7493936.html

December 26, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA, weapons and war