President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is picking up crucial support from swing-state Senate Democrats despite Republican opposition heightened by revelations of a secret side-agreement between Iran and the United Nations agency that inspects nuclear facilities.
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This week two key undecided Democratic senators – Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who is close to Schumer, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – announced their support for the deal.
Sen Debbie Stabenow said today she will support the deal, joining steady stream of Democrats who have recently backed the deal.
Rep. Donald Norcross, New Jersey Democrat whose district includes a sizable Jewish community, said he would vote against the agreement.
In his letter to Nadler, first reported by The New York Times, Obama said it was his “steadfast conviction that a nuclear-armed Iran would present a profound security threat to us and to our partners, particularly Israel“.
“I strongly support this historic agreement and will do everything in my power to ensure that it stands”, he closed.
To override the president’s veto – which opponents are aiming to do – Republicans need every GOP member of Congress as well as 13 Democratic Senators and 44 House Democrats. Most Democratic candidates have lined up behind the deal, but former Virginia Sen.
Senators Schumer and Menendez looked hard at the deal and came to the inescapable conclusion: the deal is simply no good. But supporters feel so confident that they can get to 34 that some have begun to say in private that 41 may even be in reach.
“That whip count, along with many private conversations he has had with undeclared Democrats, led Reid to pronounce he was “cautiously optimistic” that he would be able to secure enough support to prevent an override of Obama’s veto of a resolution opposing the deal”. And while I believe the JCPOA, if implemented scrupulously by Iran, will help engage Tehran constructively on regional issues, we must always remember that its sole goal is to halt the country’s nuclear weapons activities. That’s why I have introduced H.R. 3199, a bill that would stop the lifting of any sanctions on Iran until the Senate passes the deal with a two-thirds vote, just as Article II of the Constitution requires. The US Congress is reviewing the agreement and is likely to vote on it in September.
Congress plans to vote on a resolution of disapproval of the deal struck by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany with Iran.
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In the statement posted on Twitter, released after he broke the news to the Washington Post on Sunday, Reid went to great lengths to assuage the concerns of the pro-Israel crowd. Over four decades in Congress, Reid said, “my support for the safety and security of the Israeli people has been at the core of my views on the Middle East”. There are 69 House lawmakers in favor of the deal so far, and 140 are uncommitted.
