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 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, 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.’”
This article was originally published in our sister publication Exchange Monitor.