Democrats took issue with President Trump’s characterization of the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran, as global tensions eased a bit following the Persian nation’s launch of more than a dozen missiles at two bases in Iraq.
The attack was a direct retaliation for the U.S. operation that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike last week. President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran “appears to be standing down” after the attack.
But Trump also used the occasion to criticize the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, saying it helped finance the Iranian regime’s global proxy terrorist network.
“Iran’s hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion dollars. Instead of saying, ‘Thank you,’ to the United States, they chanted, ‘Death to America.’”
“In fact, they chanted, ‘Death to America,’ the day the agreement was signed,” Trump said. “Then, Iran went on a terrorist spree funded by the money from the deal and created hell in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration.”
House Democrats, though, say the JCPOA’s primary goal aimed to preclude the Iranian regime from attaining nuclear weapons, and President Trump’s decision to pull out of the agreement made it easier for the Islamic Republic to reach that end.
“The agreement is what has kept them for the last six years, now, almost from going any further with their nuclear weapons program. They can say what they want. The program was working. They did what we agreed to do,” Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge told the Washington Examiner. “Now, they may not have agreed with the agreement and they wanted more, but what we agreed to do is what they did.”
Illinois Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, a House Intelligence Committee member, agreed.
“Let’s put it in the broader context,” Quigley told the Washington Examiner. “The Iranians were in compliance. They had halted the processing and moving forward of developing a nuclear weapon. That is no longer the case. So, forget anything else besides that.”
“Iran wasn’t moving forward with nuclear weapons,” Quigley said. “Now they are. We were better off under the Iran deal.”
Florida Democratic Rep. Val Demings, a fellow House Intelligence Committee member, told the Washington Examiner that the JCPOA kept the U.S. safer from terrorist acts perpetrated by Iran.
“We had an ability to monitor Iran’s movements and actions and behavior. We have absolutely no ability to do that,” she said.
However, Republicans support President Trump’s assertion that the Iran deal provided financial support to Iranian terrorist proxies.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the JCPOA for the current situation the U.S. has found itself in with Iran, telling CNN’s State of the Union, “Frankly, this war kicked off — people talk about the war — this war kicked off when the JCPOA was entered into.”
