President Obama and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. (AP/John Locher)
As the vote on Iran in Congress nears, President Obama appears to be under a lot of pressure to have the accord approved, in order to secure his legacy.
After a vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, President Barack Obama returns to Washington to face off with the opponents of his nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic.
Speaking to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Obama reportedly described those who oppose the Iran deal as “the crazies.”
Obama also said of himself that after the two-week vacation, he is “refreshed, renewed, recharged — a little feisty,” according to Politico.
Obama told guests at a Democratic fundraiser near Las Vegas late Monday that he and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada had spent time “figuring out how we are going to deal with the crazies in terms of managing some problems.”
A White House spokesman later went to pains to explain Obama’s seemingly improper remark.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said on Tuesday Obama may have been “a little too flip” with his language, and adds that the president and Reid had discussed the legislative challenges they expect to face in the fall.
“He may have been a little flip, but his bottom line is that if you take a step back, as he was during vacation, and take a look at what some Republicans float in Washington,” Schultz said, “he thinks those are reckless steps.”
Schultz claims Obama was not talking about opponents to the Iran deal.
However, some analysts suggested Obama was labeling opponents of the Iran nuclear deal as “crazies.”
Opponents to the deal did not remain silent. “That incendiary rhetoric cheapens our political discourse and ignores the real concerns that Americans of all political persuasions have about the implications of this far-reaching deal,” Congresswoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said in a statement Tuesday morning.
Getting the Iran deal approved by Congress will be one of Obama’s major challenges in September, when Congress is set to vote on the approval of the deal.
Democratic leader Senator Chuck Schumer stated he is against the deal, as are a number of other Democrats. Obama has been campaigning vigorously to garner support for the deal, which is perceived as the crown jewel of his foreign policy, but which has been consistently losing public support.
Reid himself expressed his support of the deal.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel
AP contributed to this report.
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