Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), one of the most vulnerable senators facing re-election, slammed President Barack Obama last week as the “drug dealer in chief” over the recent U.S. payment of $400 million to Iran.
“We can’t have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief,” Kirk said in a meeting with the State Journal-Register that was reported Saturday. He also accused Obama of “giving clean packs of money” to a “state sponsor of terror.”
“Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East,” he said, as quoted by the Chicago Tribune. “We’re going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them.”
Obama has said the $400 million, which the State Department said it used as “leverage” to secure the release of American hostages, was repayment for a failed arms deal decades ago.
In a statement to CNN on Sunday, Kirk’s campaign stood by the remarks.
“Sen. Kirk was referring to the administration’s decision to send pallets of cash, not even US dollars, but euros and Swiss francs, in a clear ransom payment to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” campaign manager Kevin Artl said. “The decision sets an awful and dangerous international standard that should be investigated and the lack of transparency from the administration clearly indicated they knew their actions were not above board.”
