Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., will oppose the Iran nuclear deal, the sixth Jewish Democrat in Congress to declare himself against the deal.
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He added that advocates on both sides of the debate made points that couldn’t be dismissed, but in the end he said he “must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval”.
“I don’t think anybody was surprised”, Earnest said.
The New York senator is among the most influential Jewish lawmakers in the United States. Angus King, I-Maine, have come out in support of the president’s deal with Iran. “Even more importantly, the agreement would allow Iran, after ten to fifteen years, to be a nuclear threshold state with the blessing of the world community”.
After the mid-September vote on a resolution to disapprove of the Iran deal, Obama would need 34 votes in the Senate to sustain his veto. So, while Thursday’s announcements are a blow to the president, opponents of the deal still face an uphill battle to enact a disapproval resolution.
The administration, which has lobbied intensely for the pact, had secured the backing of more than a dozen Senate Democrats and more than two dozen House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Sherman otherwise praised President Barack Obama for his efforts to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state.
Democratic support for the nuclear deal with Iran appears to be dwindling. White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that Schumer and the president have differed over Middle East policy since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which Schumer supported and Obama opposed.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, another pro-Israel member, announced Friday that he would also vote against the deal, becoming the 9th House Democrat to publicly oppose the agreement.
Key Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Thursday night he would oppose the Iran nuclear deal, saying he would try to persuade his Democratic colleagues to do the same. Amb.
The Californian lawmaker said he plans to propose additional sanctions on Iran next month to target its non-nuclear behavior.
“One source close to the New York delegation’s discussions told CNN that Schumer was expected to hold off making his opposition public until the math was clear that Republicans wouldn’t be able to assemble votes for an override, though the source thought Schumer would wait until the fall to announce”, CNN reported on Friday. It is seen as one of the last pieces of Obama’s legacy before he leaves the White House in 2017.
“Characterizing people who may be in opposition to the agreement as wanting to go to war as an alternative, I’m not comfortable with that, and I wish the White House wouldn’t do that”, Hoyer said in an interview in Jerusalem on Thursday.
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Simply put, I do not believe that rejecting this agreement is in our national security interest, Baldwin said.
