(Radio Iowa) – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran against President Biden in the 2020 Democratic Primary, was in Cedar Rapids Sunday, defending Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. “The good news is that after 20 years of war, after the loss of 2400 members of the U.S. armed forces and after a trillion dollars of spending, our troops are finally coming home and that war, for us, is coming to an end,” Sanders said, to applause.

Sanders then asked the crowd to applaud the bravery of U.S. troops at Kabul’s airport who worked to evacuate 114-thousand Americans and Afghan allies. “The bad news, of course — and it is bad news, is that the corrupt government of Afghanistan collapsed faster than we thought, the Taliban is now in power and we are seeing death and chaos at the airport,” Sanders said.

Sanders expressed sympathy to the families of the 13 American troops who died last Thursday at the airport. Sanders was in Iowa Sunday to tout passage of a three-and-a-half trillion dollar federal spending package.