The Daily Populous Monday March 16th, 2026 night edition
Authored by jewishinsider.com and submitted by soalone34

Ben Rhodes calls for primaries against Democrats who support Iran war

‘If you can't stand against that, you don't stand for a f***ing thing,’ the former Obama admin official said

A former top Obama administration foreign policy official said on Wednesday that any Democratic lawmakers who vote to support U.S. strikes on Iran should be primaried.

“If you vote for the funding of this war, you should be primaried. I don’t want you in the Democratic Party,” said Ben Rhodes, co-host of the “Pod Save the World” podcast and former deputy national security advisor under President Barack Obama.

He was referring to Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Jared Golden (D-ME) and Juan Vargas (D-CA), the only four Democrats to vote against a war powers resolution last week that sought an immediate end to the U.S. military campaign in Iran.

Rhodes, who was one of the biggest boosters of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and a leading Israel critic on the left, said the Democratic Party should have a big tent — but that support for President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran falls outside of that tent.

“I would like to have a big tent in this party. I think there should be people with different ideas of how to get health care, different ideas of taxation,” Rhodes said to co-host Tommy Vietor. “To me, this is not a left-center issue. This is a right and wrong issue. Morally, what do we stand for as Democrats?”

Rhodes suggested that Democrats who cast a vote in support of the war are doing so because of donor pressure.

“How is anybody going to trust you to fight for their health care if you’re too afraid to cast a vote, that someone might call you weak or some donor might call you and complain?” Rhodes asked. “If you as a Democrat can’t say that I am against a war and I’m not going to fund a war that is being launched by an authoritarian president, illegally, with no rational basis that is explained to the American people, that has already unleashed these consequences, if you can’t stand against that, you don’t stand for a f***ing thing.”

tweda4 on March 15th, 2026 at 14:15 UTC »

If anyone is wondering where he said this or what the surrounding context was (as the article is requires you to have an account) he said this during this episode of Pod Save the World - https://youtu.be/hOI7o0oBeRo?is=2OcSteAPa7WrgZCf

Ok-Tower-9137 on March 15th, 2026 at 12:35 UTC »

Rhodes is right: you can't spend four years calling the administration an 'existential threat to democracy' and then hand that same administration a blank check to start a regime-change war in Iran. If 'democracy' and 'human rights' are your core values, you don't vote to fund the bombing of Isfahan and Shiraz. This isn't just about foreign policy; it's about whether the Democratic party actually stands for anything other than 'not being Trump.' Primaries are the only way to ensure the party doesn't just become GOP-Lite on national security.

PrettySisterKisser on March 15th, 2026 at 11:55 UTC »

I agree. They also need to be willing to get rid of party leadership if they decide to fund this illegal war.