Harris made the comments at a Democratic Party event in Detroit on Saturday [Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]
Former US Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging the US into its war with Iran.
In response to a question on the war at a Democratic Party event in Detroit on Saturday, Harris said that Trump “got pulled into it [the war with Iran] by Bibi Netanyahu, let’s be clear about that”.
Her accusation came after a report by the New York Times said Netanyahu pitched the idea of bombing Iran to the Trump administration in February.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who previously said Netanyahu had been lobbying the US to bomb Iran for decades, said the article “seemed like good reporting”.
Harris went on to criticise both the war and Trump, saying that he “entered a war that the American people do not want, putting at risk American service members”.
She added, “among the many consequences of it, it includes jacking up the cost of gas… and where do we think that cost is going to land? It’s on the consumer”.
Harris also said that the war was a “feeble attempt to distract from the Epstein files”.
The war has seen Iran close the Strait of Hormuz while targeting US interests in oil-producing Gulf states across the region, leading to an energy crunch as countries struggle to export oil.
Polls show that support for the war among the US public is weak, with a Politico poll released on Friday showing only 38 per cent back strikes on Iran, roughly the same as when the US and Israel began strikes on Iran on 28 February.
A majority of those polled said that the war was not in the interests of the US.
US-Israeli strikes have killed 3,468 Iranians while at least 13 US service personnel have been killed and 200 injured in the war.
Harris also took aim at the Trumpe administration more generally, calling it the “most corrupt, callous and incompetent administration in the history of the United States”.
“He wants to walk around as if he is strong and will use the force of America’s military against anyone whom he chooses,” she said of Trump.
Her comments come as the US prepares for the midterm elections later in November, with the Democrats looking to use the war and other Trump policies, including tariffs and deportations, to win back a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
