“I believe he will attack Iran some time prior to the election, because he thinks that’s the only way he can get elected.

“Isn’t it pathetic?”

Opinion polls taken in the month prior to the video suggested Obama would win re-election with just six major ones predicting defeated and two predicting ties out of 63 polls.

Several polls taken in the lead up to the video had Obama securing more than 10 percentage points than his opponents although other Republicans were suggested as the nomination for these polls.

These include Herman Cain, Ricky Perry, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachman.

After being played this video on CNN and being asked host Erin Burnett if it was fair to say Trump had ordered the killing of Qassam Soleimani to distract from impeachment or win an election, New Mexico’s Democratic Senator Tom Udall said: “I think it’s very hard to question the actual motivation and that’s why I believe the President of the United States should come forward, lay out the evidence, and tell us specifically why he has done what he has done here.

“I think he has really pushed us to the point where the Iranians with this maximum pressure campaign, with us violated the JCPOA and saying that we’re going to force Iran into a corner, we’ve given them no choice but to carry out some very terrible things and I’m very fearful this is not going to have a good end.”