Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Lieberman Defends Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ North Korea Threat

Former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman is defending President Trump’s hot rhetoric against North Korea, saying that it might not be the worst thing to use martial words against the nuclear-armed totalitarian regime.

“I know that President Trump’s words were strong, but I’m not upset about them because we’ve tried for years and years, really decades, diplomatic language and a lot else with the North Koreans and it hasn’t worked,” the former vice presidential candidate said Wednesday on CNN.

Trump was criticized for telling reporters on Tuesday that any North Korean attack against the United States would be met with “fire and fury the kind of which has never been seen.” North Korea has developed ballistic missiles that might soon be able to shoot a nuclear warhead at an American city. North Korean media have made remarks about an attack on the American territory of Guam, an island in the Pacific Ocean.

Lieberman has a reputation as an foreign policy interventionist with an independent streak. He was a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, even after most of the Democratic Party had backed away from the conflict. He was briefly under consideration as a possible nominee to run the FBI after Trump fired director James Comey.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.