Prompted by Wash. Times' McCaslin, Monica Crowley says if Iranian “bloodshed” escalates, “the blood will be on the president's hands”

From the June 19 broadcast of The Washington Times' “America's Morning News”:

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JOHN McCASLIN (co-host): Well, then, Monica Crowley, could we see a Tiananmen moment in Iran with massive bloodshed and, you know, if so, is -- could that blood be on Barack Obama's hands?

CROWLEY: I think you are going to see a major crackdown of the kind we saw in Tiananmen Square in 1989, where those especially young people were agitating for greater freedoms in China. The Chinese communists rolled in the big guns, fired on the crowd, and you had death and blood and mayhem in the streets. We already in Iran have death and bloodshed and mayhem. The question is, is it gonna get worse? And based on what I saw with the Ayatollah this morning and his statement, which was completely tone-deaf and completely out of it, with no grasp on what was happening right under his feet, it tells me that, yes, in fact, violence is gonna escalate. They will encircle the capital with these 20,000 Revolutionary Guard troops from outside Iran and perhaps even outside -- outside of the country, meaning foreign troops that they're bringing in, Hamas and Hezbollah, who have no qualms about firing on the Iranian people.

Your question about blood on Obama's hands? I think this is a very serious question because in the early days of this crisis, Obama was exceedingly cautious, and everybody said, “Well, let's see how the dust settles. Let's see how it shakes out.” Now we know how it's shaking out, and it's not good. And for the president of the Untied States, who represents a country that is a shining beacon for light and democracy in the world, where those protestors are looking toward us with pleading eyes. For the president to remain silent on this or morally equivocal, meaning that the people on the street are just as equal as the Iranian government and those prehistoric Islamic thugs who run that government. That, I think, is a grave injustice to what is happening here. And if there is increasing bloodshed, yes, I think in fact that the blood will be on the president's hands.