Add Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to the list of Republicans voicing strong opposition to any deal the US would come to with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.
“Absolutely,” Walker said in response to a question on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show about whether he would “disown” such a deal. “On day one. I mean, to me…the concept of a nuclear Iran is not only problematic for Iran, and certainly for Israel, but it opens the doors. I mean, the Saudis are next. You’re going to have plenty of others in the region. People forget that even amongst the Islamic world, there is no love lost between the Saudis and the Iranians.”
Walker’s are some of the latest comments by a prominent Republican since Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) led a letter signed by 47 Republican senators telling Iranian leaders that any deal their country brokered with the US could be undermined by overturned by the next president. Walker’s political organization, Our American Revival, had previously sent out a statement saying only that Walker would be “expressing concern” over the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran.
“Republicans need to ensure that any deal President Obama reaches with Iran receives congressional review,” Our American Revival communications director Kirsten Kukowski said in the statement on March 10. “Unless the White House is prepared to submit the Iran deal it negotiates for congressional approval, the next president should not be bound it. I will continue to express that concern publicly to the President and directly to the American people.”
A number of Democrats and even some Republicans criticized Cotton’s letter. Some Republicans said that they didn’t regret with the content of the letter but they did regret that it was sent to Iran’s leaders.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who, like Walker, has been signaling that he plans to jump into the 2016 Republican primary for president, defended Cotton and the other Republican senators for sending the letter as a reaction to “reports of a bad deal.”
(H/t: The Hill)
