Former Secretary of State John Kerry hit back at President Trump’s criticism of the way he helped to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, standing by the accord as “the toughest agreement” in terms of inspection and accountability.
“I did walk away. And we almost walked away on two or three other occasions where we thought it was necessary,” Kerry said during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“So he really, unfortunately, and I say this sadly — you know, more often than not, he really just doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he continued. “He makes things up, and he’s making that up as he has other things.”
Trump lashed out at Kerry in May after reports emerged he had been speaking with foreign leaders about the Iran nuclear deal as the White House was moving to extricate the U.S. from the arrangement.
“John Kerry — not the best negotiator we’ve ever seen. He never walked away from the table except to be in that bicycle race where he fell and broke his leg,” Trump said at an National Rifle Association event, referring to a 2015 incident in which Kerry crashed his bicycle into a police vehicle.
Kerry, who is promoting his book “Every Day is Extra” ahead of its release Tuesday, added there could be a return to bipartisanship in politics “by believing in the better angels of [the] American value system.”
“Right now we have a culture divide that has been accentuated by political so-called leaders,” he said. “And what they’re doing is they’re operating in a fact-less world.”
