EXCLUSIVE: 'What has she done that we're bragging about? How has she led?': Susan Sarandon backs Bernie for president instead of Hillary over Clinton's vote for the Iraq War - 'she failed that test'

Actress and progressive activist Susan Sarandon lent her star power to Bernie Sanders at an Iowa rally this evening, passing over Hillary Clinton a second time for the nation's top job.

A decider for Sarandon, who has known Sanders for more than two decades, was Clinton's 2002 vote for the Iraq War as a New York senator, a military conflict that Sanders did not support.

'That's where Hillary Clinton lost me,' she told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview, 'because there was plenty of information that even I had that said there was a real problem with the logic involved.'

Clinton went on to be secretary of state and has more experience in the foreign policy realm than Sanders, who has has focused his legislative career on fighting for economic justice.

'But what is experience without judgement,' Sarandon said tonight after a Sanders rally in northern Iowa. 'She's had a job but what has she done that we're bragging about. How has she led?'

Actress and progressive activist Susan Sarandon formally lent her support to Bernie Sanders at a Mason City, Iowa rally this evening, passing over Hillary Clinton a second time for the job

 A decider for Sarandon was Clinton's 2002 vote for the Iraq War - which Sanders was against. 'That's where Hillary Clinton lost me,' she told DailyMail.com tonight

Clinton, seen here today in Des Moines, Iowa, is a former secretary of state and has more experience in the foreign policy realm than Sanders. 'But what is experience without judgement,' Sarandon said tonight. 'She's had a job but what has she done that we're bragging about. How has she led?'

Continuing the actress said of Clinton, once the nation's top diplomat, 'She's had that job, and he's had a job, too, and she went overseas, but what I'm saying is the biggest foreign decision that had to be made in terms of foreign policy was whether or not to go into Iraq and go into war, and she failed that test.'

'I'm sorry, but for me, you can't get a bigger decision than that and we've been paying the price ever since. And I think she has to be held accountable for that.' 

In 2008 Sarandon got behind Barack Obama at a critical time in the primary. Now, she's hitting the trail for Sanders a week before Iowans cast their ballots - the start of the 2016 election.

'I've come here because for me gender is not what's important. Issues are what's important,' she said as she introduced the U.S. senator at tonight's event in Music Man Square in Mason City Iowa.

Her support for Sanders and the visit to Iowa on his behalf is more than just a response to Clinton's war record. 

Sarandon said her endorsement was an affront to the 'machine' which is 'run by Wall Street, by big pharm, by Monsanto and that it was an ode to a man she believes is 'consistent...principled' and 'incredibly brave.'

'I want a candidate who has the courage to stand and do the right thing when it was not popular,' she said ahead of his speech.

In her exclusive with DailyMail.com Sarandon expounded on that point and said that Sanders is 'untainted.'

'If you want to know how people are gonna react and where they really stand, you have to look at who's giving them their money.'

In her praise of Sanders, Sarandon said, 'The fact that he has managed to consistently be on the right side of every issue the correct side of every issue that reflects my concerns, and he has done it without being connected to Wall Street, big pharm, Monsanto, Goldman Sachs.'

'I don't know of anyone who has managed to have a career that's been so effective without owing their soul to one of the major financial and corporate institutions,' she said of the 25-year veteran of Congress.

Reflecting on the 2016 election she said, 'I think this is the last chance we're going to get to see somebody that can have that kind of change.'

'I don't know of anyone who has managed to have a career that's been so effective without owing their soul to one of the major financial and corporate institutions,' Sarandon said of Sanders, a 25-year veteran of Congress.

'When you have the other candidate taking money from Goldman Sachs, speaking to Goldman Sachs, getting a lot of money from Monsanto, I think it's really naive to believe that that's not going to have some kind of influence over policy,' Sarandon said, referring to Clinton. 

During the rally she also made a not-so-thinly veiled jab at Clinton over gay marriage.  

'It's one thing to be for gay rights and gay marriage once everybody else is for it. That's not difficult,' Sarandon stated.

Clinton did not say she was for it until 2013.That was after President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden threw their support behind it in 2012. Sanders put his position on record in 2009.

Sarandon is a longtime supporter of gay rights. In 2003 she appeared in a commercial promoting the cause. 

Clinton's husband signed laws implementing bans on benefits for same-sex spouses and military service of homosexual individuals.

She now says her husband signed the Defense of Marriage Act to prevent the Republican Congress from banning gay marriage altogether and has been embraced by national figures in the gay rights movement, including the Human Rights Campaign.  

Sarandon, who gave to Clinton in 2000 when she was running for Senate but not since, according to donation tracking website Little Sis, indicated tonight that it wasn't enough.

Clinton is a johnny-come-lately on a gay marriage, she suggested.

'Yeah, she was,' the movie star said after DailyMail.com asked if that was a reasonable interpretation of her rally remarks. 'There's a number of issues where she has come around but she very clearly equivocated or was not there in the beginning.

'She was not, and that's a matter of record, and yes she has come around,' Sarandon said, 'but my point is, it's great that she came around, but wouldn't it be great to be a leader instead of a follower, especially if you're going to hold the highest office in the land?'

Sarandon further pushed back on the argument made by Clinton and others that Sanders policy ideas are 'too difficult' to implement.

'You know, change is hard, so to say that you cant go for a decent minimum because you can't get it because it's too difficult and to have that called pragmatic is not pragmatic,' she told 1,100 of his supporters tonight. 'That's just cynicism. That's giving up before you've even tried.'