Newsrooms Tuesday placed more focus on the White House’s furious response to an open letter to Iran signed by 47 Republican senators than to the letter itself.
The New York Times described the letter, which was spearheaded by former U.S. Army veteran and freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., as escalating the “fractious debate” over a nuclear Iran, adding that the message represents a “rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations.”
The Tehran letter comes at a time when the Obama administration is nearing a self-imposed deadline for a deal with Iran. And although the Times is careful to note that the deal currently in the works has drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, the paper’s report, titled “G.O.P. Senators’ Letter to Iran About Nuclear Deal Angers White House,” focuses on opposition from the right side of the aisle.
On its front page Tuesday morning, the Washington Post reported that Obama derided the 47 Republican senators and their desire “to kill any potential deal,” noting that the president also accused them of wanting to “push the United States into a military conflict.”
The Post focuses on the back-and-forth between Republicans and the White House more than on the substance of the GOP’s complaint. Obama Monday accused Senate Republicans of “conspiring with Iranian hard-liners.”
“The letter drew widespread derision from Democrats, who blasted it as an amateurish attempt to torpedo the negotiations,” the paper reported, going on to cite Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Meanwhile, in a front-page article titled “GOP Iran letter draws Obama rebuke,” the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, “Republicans say Congress could nullify nuclear deal, White House likens them to Tehran hard-liners.”
The Journal report focused mainly on the White House’s critical response to the GOP’s Tehran letter, adding that it is “unusual … to send a direct message from Congress to a top U.S. adversary.”
The report also added reactions from Iran, citing political analyst Hamid Reza Jalaeipour as saying of the letter: “This is just a disruptive, radical move in the middle of the talks by some of their extremists who are against Iran and the system.”
USA Today, for its part, also dedicated a good deal of its front page to the president’s response to the Tehran letter, declaring in its headline, “Obama: GOP Senators’ Iran letter backhanded.”
The article characterized the current White House deal with Iran as one that would block Iran from going nuclear in return for an easing of U.S. sanctions.
Lastly, the Hill dedicated a great deal of manpower to covering the controversy, publishing several lengthy reports, including “Iran dismisses GOP letter as ‘propaganda ploy,’” “Outrage over GOP’s letter to Iran” and “White House says GOP’s Iran letter ‘without precedent’” in the span of 24 hours.
Unlike many of its larger competitors, the Hill gave substantial attention to the specifics of the Republican position, including the GOP’s opposition to any nuclear deal that lacks input from Congress.
Meanwhile, in opinion journalism, the Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg warned Tuesday that Republicans “could provide an excuse to blame the U.S. if nuclear negotiations fail.”
“Republicans in the Senate may believe they were doing the U.S. a favor by issuing their warning to Ayatollah Khamenei, but advocates of crushing sanctions against Iran might just have undermined their own cause,” his article explains.
The Huffington Post splashed across its site Tuesday afternoon, “Saboteur Senators Take Friendly Fire.”
Columnist Leslie H. Gelb penned a Daily Beast column titled, “GOP Hates Obama More Than a Nuclear Iran.”
“That letter to Iranian leaders from 47 Republican senators could well destroy critical bipartisanship in U.S. foreign policy for years tocome,” Gelb says. He adds that it could “treacherously undermine the bargaining power of the person constitutionally authorized to conduct American affairs abroad — the President of the United States.”
Curiously enough, the Tehran letter didn’t merit front-page coverage Tuesday morning from Politico, the Chicago Tribune or the Los Angeles Times.
