President Donald Trump on Thursday accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats of being “weak and passive with Iran,” an insult that landed days after the nation’s top intelligence official contradicted the president’s views on the Islamic republic’s nuclear capabilities.
“Schumer and the Democrats are big fans of being weak and passive with Iran,” the president tweeted. “They have no clue as to the danger they would be inflicting on our Country. Iran is in financial chaos now because of the sanctions and Iran Deal termination. Dems put us in a bad place – but now good!”
A spokesman for Schumer declined to comment.
The New York lawmaker has been sharply critical this week of the president’s ongoing feud with his own intelligence community. In a letter sent Wednesday to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Schumer called on him, CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Chris Wray, to “insist on an immediate meeting” with Trump after the president hurled insults at the top intelligence officials.
“You cannot allow the President’s ill-advised and unwarranted comments today to stand,” Schumer wrote in the letter. “He is putting you and your colleagues in an untenable position and hurting the national interest in the process. You must find a way to make that clear to him.”
Coats on Tuesday said Iran isn’t taking any steps to make a nuclear weapon, but added that Iranian officials have “publicly threatened to push the boundaries” of the nuclear deal if it did not see any benefits from it.
The president pushed back against the assessment Wednesday, saying it was wrong and that the intelligence officials “should go back to school!”
Although the president accused the minority leader on Thursday of holding a weak position on Iran, Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not support the U.S. entry into a 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement that traded sanction relief for nuclear concessions by the Iranian government. That deal, which Trump has pulled the U.S. from, was negotiated in part by the administration of then-President Barack Obama.
The deal’s other signatories, a group composed of the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, have remained party to the agreement with Iran and have criticized the U.S. for its decision to pull out of it.
The president has insisted that Iran continues to pose a nuclear threat — even though it remains in compliance with an accord — and that its non-nuclear activities, including support for groups identified by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, constitute a national security threat.
Although he did not initially support the Iran nuclear deal, the Senate minority leader criticized the Trump administration when it announced the U.S. withdrawal, arguing that there have been no reports that Iran had violated the deal.
Source » politico