Waving signs reading "Schumer—You Are No Shomer" and "Schumer—You Control the Votes to Stop the Iran Deal," thousands of New Yorkers flooded Times Square on Wednesday evening to call on Congress to reject the Obama administration’s Iranian nuclear agreement.
The rally, organized by the Jewish Rapid Response Coalition in partnership with dozens of U.S. pro-Israel groups, featured speeches by former New York Gov. George Pataki, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, and Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.), among others.
The crowd, estimated at 10,000 by event organizers, stretched over seven city blocks.
Congress has 60 days to review—and potentially reject—the Iran nuclear deal reached by the Obama administration. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who will likely be his party’s next Senate leader, is seen as a key figure that can influence Democratic votes on the issue.
"This is the day Chuck Schumer has two choices," said former Pataki aide and event organizer Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, to applause from the crowd. "He will round up the votes in the Senate to help kill this agreement before it kills us and our allies. … If he doesn’t do that, we will remember."
"Remember folks, New Yorkers get bored pretty bored with their elected leaders," said Wiesenfeld. "If you don’t do it, Chuck, we’ll be plenty bored. We’ll throw you the hell out."
Pataki, a long-shot Republican presidential candidate whose speech was greeted by large cheers from the crowd, called on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to take a stance against the Iran deal.
"Hillary, let me tell you one thing," said Pataki. "America does not need as our next president another appeaser-in-chief. We need a Commander-in-Chief who will stand up and say Iran will never have a nuclear weapon."
The former New York governor also blasted the Obama administration.
"This administration is giving hundreds of billions [of dollars to Iran] knowing some of it will go to additional crimes against humanity," said Pataki. "Neville Chamberlain would not sign this paper. Congress must reject it. We stand together and say ‘stop Iran now, no to this deal.’"
Rep. Franks criticized President Obama for "squander[ing] away every form of leverage that we have against this theocratic radical regime that has broken every promise it has ever made."
"In return, Mr. Obama got another rope-a-dope duplicitous unverifiable and astonishingly unenforceable promise from Iran to temporary slow their inexorable advancement towards nuclear weapons," said Franks.
Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat, called on liberals to oppose the Iran deal.
"I urge my fellow Democrats, and my fellow liberals, to stand shoulder to shoulder with all of us to oppose this nuclear deal," said Dershowitz.
Another protest is scheduled to take place outside of Schumer’s New York office on Thursday.