Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., is blasting President Obama for likening Republicans to Iranian hardliners and other alleged falsehoods, and he is also furious at his own party’s leadership for not fighting harder on this and other issues.
On Wednesday, President Obama defended the Iran deal during a speech at American University in Washington. His most controversial statement came while addressing what he called the “kneejerk partisanship” of the Republican Party.
“Just because Iranian hardliners chant ‘Death to America’ does not mean that that’s what all Iranians believe. In fact it’s those hardliners that are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hardliners, chanting ‘Death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican caucus,” said Obama.
Yoho, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee fired back at Obama’s comparison.
“Number one, it’s not presidential. I mean to throw (one of) his own political parties under the bus like that and compare us with the hardliners. . Let’s look at who the hardliners are. The hardliners in Iran, the people chanting ‘Death to America’, that would be their Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini and their president, President Rouhani,” said Yoho.
The congressman says Obama is also disingenuous in insisting no stronger deal was possible and the alternative to the deal is military conflict.
“He was saying, ‘If it’s not this deal, it’s war.’ No it’s not. The alternative is a better deal and you get a better deal by putting sanctions on there harder and bringing the P5 nations back together and negotiating a better deal,” said Yoho, who says if Iran was serious about acting responsibly there would be obvious signs.
“When Iran denounces terrorism around the world, that would be a start. When Iran releases out four hostages, that would be a good faith gesture. And when Iran stops chanting ‘Death to America. Death to Israel’ and burning our flag, then I would listen to them. They’re not ready yet,” said Yoho.
Obama also denied the existence of side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, over the terms of inspecting sites suspected of nuclear activity in the future.
“Again the president is misspeaking. Some people would call it a lie. There are side deals because John Kerry even said, ‘Yes, there are deals and there are briefings on that,” said Yoho, who says one known term of a side deal completely mystifies him.
“One of the agreements is that there has to be environmental sampling. In this agreement, Iran is charged with bringing environmental samples to have the IAEA look at. How much faith do have in Iran sampling the area that’s in question? I have zero faith that they’ll do that,” said Yoho.
Several congressional Democrats have announced their support for the deal this week while a number of House Democrats said they would oppose it. The opposition got a major shot in the arm on Thursday, when Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced he would vote to reject the deal. House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., announced he would do the same.
Yoho expects a lot more Democrats to follow suit.
“I think you’re going to see the Democratic members of the House vote against this deal, especially ones that sit on the foreign affairs committee. The majority of them will vote against this,” he said.
If the deal were considered a treaty, it would require two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate. The Obama administration refuses to classify the agreement as a deal. In response, Congress passed the Corker-Cardin bill, requiring Congress to vote on the plan but it flips the script by forcing two-thirds of members in both the House and Senate to reject it in order to override a promised Obama veto.
Yoho understands why his party’s leaders took that route but wishes they had taken a different course by insisting that the administration classify the agreement as a treaty.
“Ideally, it would have been better to play hardball but with the lack of leadership we have in Washington both in the House and in the Senate, we’re not going to have that,” he said.
Congress is on summer recess. The Iran vote will come soon after lawmakers return in September. Other major debates will center on appropriations and the debt ceiling, more issues where Yoho thinks GOP leaders need to get much stronger.
“We have not had one discussion on the debt ceiling as a Republican conference all year long. Again, this is a lack of leadership. (House Speaker) John Boehner has not brought this up. [Appropriations Committee] Chairman Hal Rogers has asked for hearings on this. We’ve not had one,” said Yoho.
“I hope that we can get our act together in those 12 days to deal with the trillion-dollar spending that’s going to come up,” he added.
Yoho is also also unimpressed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s public vow that there would be no government shutdown.
“I’ve learned in poker you never show your cards ’til you’re ready to cash them in. Nobody wants the government to shut down, but but you want to raise a trillion dollars in debt. The American people don’t want that either,” said Yoho.
“They sent the Republicans the largest majority we’ve had in almost 90 years to lead this country. If we’re not leading, we’re going to lose the trust of the American people,” he said.
