On Friday’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough asked if President Obama would call Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) ignorant or a liar after Schumer announced his opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement.
Schumer released a statement on Thursday night announcing he would vote yes on a motion of disapproval. An excerpt of the statement is available below.
"Ultimately, it depends on how one thinks Iran will behave. If one thinks Iran will moderate, one should approve the agreement.
But if one feels that Iranian leaders won’t moderate and their unstated but very real goal is to get relief from the onerous sanctions, while still retaining their nuclear ambitions and their ability to increase belligerent activities in the Middle East and elsewhere, then one should conclude that it would be better not to approve this agreement.
Iran has a large number of people who want their government to decrease its isolation from the world and focus on economic advancement at home. But this desire has been evident for 35 years, yet the Iranian leaders have held a tight and undiminished grip on Iran, successfully maintaining their brutal, theocratic dictatorship with little threat. Who’s to say this dictatorship won’t prevail for another 10, 20 or 30 years?
To me, the very real risk that Iran won’t moderate and will, instead, use the agreement to pursue its nefarious goals is too great.
Therefore, I’ll vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy. It is because I believe Iran won’t change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power.
Better to keep US sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be."
Schumer, the third-ranking member in the party, is one of the most influential Jewish voices in Congress.
"I just asked, now is Barack Obama going to call Chuck Schumer ignorant or a liar like he suggested at American University that anybody that doesn't support this deal was either ignorant or not telling the truth?" Scarborough asked.
Obama gave a speech on the Iran deal this week where he compared Republican opponents of the deal to the hardliners in Iran who chant "death to America."