Blinken Defends Sending Condolences After Death of Iranian President

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is defending his department’s decision to issue a statement expressing condolences after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) noted, “Yesterday, the State Department issued a statement mourning the death of the Iranian president.”

“I assume as secretary, you share that sentiment?” he asked.

Blinken responded, “We expressed official condolences as we have when countries — adversaries, enemies or not — have lost leaders. It changes nothing about the fact that Mr. Raisi was engaged in reprehensible conduct including repressing his own people as a judge and then as president.”

“It changes not a whit about our policy. But, it’s something that we’ve done many times in the past, going back many administrations and many decades, and we do as a normal course of business,” he added.

Watch the video below:

Barrasso shot back, “Well, I don’t think it should be a normal course of business.”

“I think it’s shocking that this administration would mourn the death of the Butcher of Tehran. I don’t. He’s responsible for death, rape, torture, a sworn enemy of the free world. I think it’s a terrible mistake,” he added.

On Monday, Iranian state television reported Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven other passengers were killed when the helicopter they were traveling in crash in the northwestern part of the country.

Raisi, the second-most powerful official in Iran,