Bernie Sanders
Role at the time: U.S. senator from Vermont, in a post on X
Condemned
Response to this claim
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Vance's statement that what is happening in Iran is not a war should be explained to the families of the 19 U.S. service members and the thousands of other people killed across the region.
“JD Vance said what’s happening in Iran is not a “war.” Please explain that to the families of the 19 U.S. service members who lost their lives or the thousands of people who have been killed across the region.”
Read the original post (opens in a new tab)Bernie Sanders post on X, September 4, 2026Full X post, published September 4, 2026 at 19:42 UTC
Sanders' post on his X account, @BernieSanders. It responds to Vance's remark at the September 3 briefing and quotes another account's clip of Vance's answer.
Why we used this label
Sanders rejects the not-a-war description as incompatible with the deaths the fighting has caused. He denounces the statement rather than only disputing a label, so condemns fits better than challenges the characterization.