Hillary Clinton took a jab Tuesday at the nearly 50 Republican senators who warned Iranian leaders that any nuclear deal struck with the Obama administration comes with an expiration date.
“The recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership,” the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential candidate told reporters, ahead of addressing her exclusive use of private emails for official correspondence when she was secretary of state. “And one has to ask: What was the purpose of this letter? There appear to be two logical answers. Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander in chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.”
Clinton chose to wade into the spat between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans at a moment when she commanded unparalleled attention from the national media.
As reporters anticipated her remarks about personal emails, Clinton made them wait, opting instead to go to bat for President Obama.
Republicans, however, are not backing down from the letter signed by 47 senators — and a growing number of likely GOP presidential candidates, including Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Rick Perry, R-Texas.
“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei. 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,” said the letter circulated by Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, an opponent of any deal with Iran.
White House officials have accused Republicans of intentionally trying to sabotage talks between Washington and Tehran. Negotiators have until March 24 to meet a self-imposed deadline for a deal.
