Beto O'Rourke, one of the Democratic candidates running to challenge President Trump in 2020, accused the president of "provoking yet another war in the Middle East" by sending an additional 1,500 troops to the Middle East to counter the threat from Iran.

"President Trump is escalating tensions, is provoking yet another war in the Middle East where we find ourselves already engaged in war in so many countries -- in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen, not too far from there in Libya, and in Afghanistan," O'Rourke said in an interview with Margaret Brennan for "Face the Nation," which will air on Sunday.......

"I have a really hard time believing this administration and believing a president who has so wantonly lied and misconstrued the facts at every single turn to his own gain. I'm suspicious of a national security team that has so often called for war," O'Rourke said. " You have someone in Bolton who has publicly said that he wants regime change in Iran."

O'Rourke continued that a war with Iran could result in thousands or hundreds of thousands casualties in the Middle East.

"If there is a peaceful alternative to this -- and I know that there is -- then we must do everything within our power to pursue it. That's what I would do in my administration," O'Rourke said. "I'd stick up for our values, make sure that we defend our allies, protect the lives of our fellow Americans. But do that peacefully where we can."

"Otherwise, we will produce more wars, more veterans coming back to this country seeking the care that they are being effectively and functionally denied today. I think we need to do far better going forward and I know that we can," O'Rourke continued.

Beto O’Rourke laid out a plan to mobilize every branch of government to protect Roe v. Wade and defend the right of American women to make decisions about their own bodies.

There is a nationwide assault on women’s reproductive freedom. State legislatures — many dominated by male politicians — are undertaking a concerted effort to interfere with a woman’s constitutionally-protected right to make her own health care decisions and limit women’s access to quality health care, including contraception and abortion. These increasingly radical and dangerous plans cannot be tolerated and, as president, Beto would leverage all three branches of the federal government to defend a woman’s right to choose, reverse and prevent laws and actions restricting women’s reproductive freedom, and increase funding for contraceptive care.

EXECUTIVE

Put the full force of the Presidency behind defending women’s reproductive rights and expanding women’s access to health care

- Appoint an Attorney General who would protect a woman’s constitutional right under Roe v. Wade to access the health care she needs and deserves in any litigation on this issue, including opposing any unconstitutional TRAP laws and attempts to hide behind religious liberty to limit a woman’s health care options.

- Reverse the Trump Administration’s “gag rule” banning doctors from telling women how they can safely and legally access abortion.

- Put forth a budget that includes increased Title X funding for women’s health and includes no restrictions on the use of federal health care funds for abortions — as is the case right now under the Hyde Amendment. Such restrictions disproportionately affect women of color and women in underserved communities from accessing abortion.

- Remove scientifically unsound FDA labeling regulations that impose barriers to the use of medication-based abortions.

...prompted by a town hall-goer who had become frustrated with another Democrat for whom she had high hopes, Barack Obama.

With the intransigence in Washington, the woman asked, how could O’Rourke get anything done?

“There was no person more inspiring in public life, in my life, than Barack Obama,” O’Rourke responded, saying he was prepared to “walk through walls” for him in 2008.

“One of the frustrations, though, during those eight years, is so many people who were willing to walk through walls — and some of you did walk through walls here in Iowa — no longer felt connected to the mission, to the policies and to the goals during that administration,” O’Rourke said.

If elected, O’Rourke suggested he would go to conservative districts to pressure Republican lawmakers on policies related to health care, college affordability and the economy.

“Let’s go past [Rep.] Steve King directly to his constituents, make the case to them and involve them in the work to make sure that we get this done,” he said, invoking an Iowa Republican loathed by Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “effectively stripped Barack Obama of the last year of his presidency when it came to nominating [a justice] to the Supreme Court,” O’Rourke said.

“If we play nicely by the set rules, we’re going to end up with the same results,” he added. “If we go around some of these intransigent members of Congress, if we build a majority in both houses of Congress to make sure that we deliver this legislation … then we’ll be able to achieve this ambitious agenda.”