Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday accused the majority of the Republican senate of using “juvenile political tactics” to undermine President Obama’s efforts to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.
Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, Reid denounced a letter 47 Senate Republicans sent to Iranian leaders, warning that the Senate must sign off on any lasting agreement with the Islamic Republic.
“The judgment of my Republican colleagues seems to be clouded by their abhorrence of President Obama,” Reid said. “Today Republican senators sent a letter to the Iranian regime’s leaders aimed at sabotaging these negotiations.”
The letter was signed by all but seven Republicans and included the signatures of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other GOP leaders.
Republicans want Congress to have the authority to approve or disapprove any deal with Iran, particularly one that lifts current economic sanctions against the country.
They warned Iranian leaders that any deal with Obama may be short-lived.
“The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,” The letter said.
Reid told Republicans in his floor speech that they should stop trying to undermine Obama, who he pointed out, was elected twice.
“Even at the height of our disagreements with President George W. Bush, Senate Democrats never considered sending a letter to Saddam Hussein,” Reid said, referring to the now-dead Iraqi leader. “It would have been an embarrassment to the Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush.”
Obama himself struck back at the GOP letter Monday, accusing Republicans of trying to make “common cause with the hard liners in Iran.”
