As he prepares to defend his nuclear deal with Iran in a public address Wednesday, President Obama faces a growing tide of public discontent, but also the comfort of knowing Democrats are falling into line to block Republican efforts to thwart its implementation.
Poll results indicate that the more Americans know about the agreement, reached July 14 in Vienna between Iran and six world powers, the less they like of it. That’s the dynamic Obama hopes to reverse in his speech at American University.
Meanwhile, the president has secured the support of several Democratic lawmakers seen as key to sustaining any veto of congressional action to disapprove of the deal, including Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida, and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Kaine followed the White House in comparing Obama’s deal with Iran to President John F. Kennedy’s signing of a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union in that it did not solve all the problems related to a major adversary.
“Iran’s support for terrorism remains a major concern and we must increase efforts with our regional allies to counter those malign activities,” Kaine said. “But, at the end of the day, this agreement is not about making an ally out of an adversary. It is about denying an adversary a path to obtaining nuclear weapons. This deal takes a nuclear weapons program that was on the verge of success and disables it for many years through peaceful diplomatic means with sufficient tools for the international community to verify whether Iran is meeting its commitments.”
But the president’s arguments have not resonated with the Republican majority in either chamber of Congress, who point out that Obama has done nothing to stop the growth of Iran’s non-nuclear power and influence in the Middle East for fear of threatening the nuclear talks.
“For years, many of us have urged the administration to adopt a regional strategy to counter Iran’s maligned activities in the Middle East,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, if such a strategy exists, there is no evidence of it.”
House Republicans moved Tuesday to block relief of U.S. sanctions against Iran, introducing a resolution to disapprove of the deal that Speaker John Boehner said would be voted on when lawmakers return in September.
Support for the agreement also has declined among voters — who previously had told pollsters they supported the diplomatic process but were deeply skeptical Iran could be trusted — as its details became more known.
A July 23-28 Quinnipiac University poll of 1,644 registered voters released Monday found that voters opposed the deal 57 percent to 28 percent, with only a bare majority (52 percent) of Democrats saying they support it. The poll, which used telephone interviews, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
Those findings continued a downward trend in polling since the deal was announced. In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,002 adults taken July 14-20 using phone interviews, only 38 percent of the 79 percent of those who had heard of the deal approved, while 48 percent disapproved. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
A CNN/ORC poll of 1,107 adults taken July 22-25 found that 52 percent wanted Congress to reject the deal. That poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
On the other hand, a Washington Post/ABC News poll of 1,002 adults taken July 19 found that 56 percent supported the deal versus 37 percent who opposed it. But 64 percent of respondents also said they were not confident the deal would prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
