Josh Earnest, President Obama’s spokesman, ripped Schumer Friday after the senior New York senator broke with the President over the nuclear deal with Iran.
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In his statement issued Thursday night, Schumer echoed criticisms of other opponents.
Congress will say if it approves or not the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached last month between the world powers (US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) and Iran, which is intended to cap, restrict, monitor and partially roll back Tehran’s nuclear program for a finite period in exchange for sanctions relief.
But the argument that Schumer’s opposition is more considered since he waited until reading the deal before announcing his opposition also raises the question of whether his criticisms should be taken more seriously by other Democrats. His decision also put him at odds with the Democrats’ likely presidential nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has cautiously embraced the deal. The move spared Schumer weeks of intense lobbying from proponents and foes of the deal.
“After deep study, careful thought and considerable soul-searching, I have decided I must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval”, Schumer wrote in an article posted on Medium.
Republicans would need at least 13 Democrats in the Senate and 44 in the House to vote against Mr Obama to muster the two-thirds majorities in both chambers needed to override a veto.
Accusation’s of disloyalty emerged nearly immediately from the Obama camp.
The letter tells the US president that the Iran deal “will advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future nonproliferation agreements”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called on Obama to stop demonizing foes of the deal, but the president doubled down on his assessment.
The Obama administration is confident it can get enough Democrats on Capitol Hill to support the Iran deal, despite prominent rejections of the deal from Sen.
“I think it is incumbent upon us… to give the negotiated agreement a chance to succeed”, he said.
The White House has been aggressively seeking Democratic support of the dealand the optics of losing the vote of one of the top leaders in the party has the Obama Administration concerned.
And the ugly, he said, is that Iran is permitted within 15 years “to have an unlimited quantity of centrifuges of unlimited quality, as well as heavy water reactors and reprocessing facilities”. Should Congress pass a resolution rejecting the deal, defections by too many Democrats could be problematic for Obama’s efforts to sustain a veto.
Congressman Elliot Engel, the democratic leader on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also announced Thursday he will not be supporting the deal.
But there was no immediate sign Schumer’s announcement would trigger a rush of Democratic opposition to the global accord.
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“The option of going back to negotiations is close to zero”, said Philipp Ackermann, Berlin’s deputy ambassador to the United States.
