NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that any deal President Barack Obama makes with Iran will be a tough sell, since it would “make Iran stronger” in the Middle East. (RELATED: Report: U.S. Could Allow Iran To Build Centrifuges In Underground Bunker)
MITCHELL: You’ve got a tailor-made issue for Republican critics saying until you stop Iran’s moves throughout the region, why are we doing a deal with Iran?
TODD: Why make Iran stronger? Ultimately any deal with Iran is going to make Iran stronger in the region. And that is going to make– if Iran is causing us problems in Yemen, it was an important Arab Spring victory, if you want to call it that, that the president touted for a long time, and now strengthening Iran is a good thing here?
I think it already was a tough sell. Now there’s evidence that Iran — that Iran is strong without this deal, giving them a deal will make them stronger. How do you then sell that politically? I understand the rationale that the administration is saying, ‘Hey, a deal with Iran is still better. You have more access to them, and that’s what this is about, trying to keep them in the tent not out of the tent.’
Boy, if it was politically tough before with Iran on the march and our allies in Saudi Arabia fighting them here, rationalizing a deal with Iran that makes them stronger makes the president’s job that much harder.