A foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) promoted an attack on Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) Wednesday from Donte Stallworth, a 9/11 truther who was convicted 10 years ago of DUI manslaughter.
Matt Duss ripped Cotton for saying in a recent interview that the U.S. would swiftly win a war with Iran if it came to that, telling Firing Line it would take two strikes: "the first strike and the last strike." However, Cotton also said he wasn't advocating a conflict with the country, saying, "I’m simply delivering the message that if Iran were to attack the United States, it would be a grave miscalculation on their part and there would be a furious response."
"No one actually believes this, and it's an extraordinarily dumb and dangerous thing to say," Duss tweeted in response to Cotton's comments. "But in Washington there's no level of hawkish idiocy that will cause people to stop treating you as a serious national security person."
"There's no doubt Cotton wants war with Iran," Donte Stallworth tweeted in response to Duss, who then retweeted it. "He has said on multiple occasions that a war with Iran would be similar to Desert Fox (Clinton’s 1998 bombing campaign against Iraq), and according to him the war would take 'several days.'"
There’s no doubt Cotton wants war with Iran. He has said on multiple occasions that a war with Iran would be similar to Desert Fox (Clinton’s 1998 bombing campaign against Iraq), and according to him the war would take 'several days."
— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) May 15, 2019
Promoting Stallworth is an interesting call by Duss.
Stallworth was a first-round NFL draft pick in 2002 and played for six different NFL teams as a wide receiver. He was suspended by the NFL for the entire 2009 season after pleading guilty in the killing of construction worker Mario Reyes, who he struck and killed with his car on March 14, 2009. He served 24 days out of a 30-day sentence. His contract was then terminated by the Cleveland Browns and he caught only 25 passes over the next three seasons before washing out of the league.
Stallworth also dabbled in 9/11 trutherism, tweeting in 2009 conspiracy theories about the attacks. Nevertheless, the Huffington Post hired him in 2014 as a national security fellow.
"NO WAY 9/11 was carried out by 'dying' Bin Laden, 19 men who couldn't fly a damn kite. STILL have NO EVIDENCE Osama was connected, like Iraq," Stallworth tweeted in 2009. Stallworth also tweeted, "Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr @ ppl who actually believe a plane hit the pentagon on 9/11... hole woulda been ASTRONOMICALLY bigger, God bless lost lives."
Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate, said any conflict with the Islamic Republic would be a disaster.
The American people do not want endless war! We cannot allow Donald Trump and his national security advisor, John Bolton, to drag us into a war with Iran. The American people must stand up to prevent what would be an unmitigated disaster. https://t.co/lt4r5XCcWQ
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 14, 2019