White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House didn’t need Congress to approve the Iran nuclear agreement during Thursday’s press briefing.
NBC reporter Chris Jansing asked Earnest how important it was that Congress supports this deal. A recent poll showed 2-to-1 opposition among Americans to the agreement.
"How important is that final number, if it’s breathtakingly close… what kind of message does that send and how much do the numbers matter to the President and to the White House?" Jansing asked.
"Not at all," Earnest said. "The fact is we don’t need Congress to approve this deal. We just need Congress not to screw it up."
Earnest and Jansing had an exchange earlier in the day on MSNBC's Morning Joe, when Jansing reminded Earnest to his face that President Obama had in fact directly compared Iranian hardliners to the Republican caucus.