WASHINGTON – The presidential campaign collided head-on with congressional debate on the Iran nuclear deal Wednesday, producing an only-in-Washington political spectacle inside the Capitol and out as lawmakers readied for what could be the most consequential foreign policy vote of their careers.
As the day began, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton praised the accord. “Diplomacy is not the pursuit of perfection. It is the balancing of risk,” she said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. Either the deal moves forward or “we turn down a more dangerous path leading to a far less certain and riskier future.”
Across town, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and other conservatives, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, were preparing to headline an anti-deal rally on the lawn of the Capitol. And at the same time, debate on the measure aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program was to begin in both the House and the Senate, where supporters and the White House were pushing to block passage of a disapproval resolution.
The House, returning from summer recess, is expected to approve the disapproval resolution this week. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who is working hard to bolster support for the deal, invited ambassadors from the other five nations in the agreement to meet later Wednesday with House Democrats.
Joined by military veterans, several dozen House Democrats gathered Tuesday evening on the steps of the Capitol to show their support for the accord. They said the agreement is about verification, not trust.
“Tonight we stand, members of Congress, on the steps of the Capitol, as members totally committed to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran,” Pelosi said.
In the Senate as of Tuesday, 42 Democratic and independent senators had announced support for the deal – one more vote than needed to block passage of a resolution of disapproval and hand President Barack Obama a major foreign policy victory.
But it remained unclear if all 42 would go along with procedural maneuvers to mount a filibuster and prevent a final vote on the resolution. The administration is pushing for that outcome and Senate Democrats were meeting Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry, a lead negotiator of the accord.
Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an author of the legislation to allow Congress to review the deal, was adamant that the Senate vote on the merits of the deal.
“With 98 senators on the record voting in support of the legislation, I am very disappointed that some members on the other side of the aisle are reversing their positions and now are threatening to filibuster to keep the Senate from voting on this consequential agreement with Iran,” Corker said.
Although the wheels of Congress are turning in favor of the president, those opposed are launching an all-out push against the deal. Several hundred members of a pro-Israel lobby were to be at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to reject the deal with Iran, whose leaders have threatened to destroy the Jewish state.
The agreement struck by Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers in July will provide Iran hundreds of billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions in exchange for a decade of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program.
