Fresh off of a two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, President Barack Obama went on the offensive Monday against opponents of his Iran nuclear deal during a fundraiser in Las Vegas for the Democrat tapped to run for Nevada Sen. Harry Reid’s seat next year.
Telling of his limo ride to the event with Reid, Obama said he and the Senate minority leader “were doing a little reminiscing and then figuring out how we’re going to deal with the crazies in terms of managing some problems.”
According to Politico, the “crazies” Obama was referring to are the opponents of the administration’s plan to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That opposition group includes mostly Republicans, but also several key Democrats, such as New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has been tapped to replace Reid as the top Democrat in the Senate.
Opponents of the deal, which will remove sanctions against Iran in exchange for it curtailing its production of uranium, say that it provides for little oversight of the Islamic regime.
Obama’s remarks are just the latest in a series of aggressive rhetorical attacks on lawmakers who oppose the nuclear pact.
In a speech earlier this month, he compared Republicans to “hard-liners” within Iran, such as the Revolutionary Guards and Quds forces, who oppose the nuclear deal.
“It’s those hard-liners who are most comfortable with the status quo. It’s those hard-liners chanting ‘Death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal,” Obama said in that speech. “They’re making common cause with the Republican caucus.”
That statement came before Schumer and other Democrats came out against the deal.
Reid made his position on the deal known on Sunday, pledging to support it.
“It’s hard for me to express how much I love Harry Reid,” Obama said of the 75-year-old senator at Monday’s fundraiser. “Everything I’ve accomplished I’ve accomplished because Harry Reid was there by my side.”
A vote on the deal will be held in mid-September. All 54 Republicans have said they will vote against the deal. That means they need at least six Democrats to avoid a filibuster to put the bill on Obama’s desk. So far, Schumer and New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez are the only two Democrats who are siding with Republicans.