Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer,” Sen. Angus King (I-MA) said while he was not happy about the letter 47 Republican senators sent to the leadership of Iran, that will not stop him from supporting Sen. Bob Corker’s (R-TN) proposal demanding Congress review any deal the president makes with Iran.
King said, “Well, I think it’s 50/50 right now. I have heard 60/40, 50/50. I think it’s not done at all. What I think is it’s kind of amazing is the way people are lining up. You heard Sen. Ted Cruz a few minutes ago saying you got to say no to this deal. There isn’t a deal yet. We won’t even know the framework for another week or two, and then the details we won’t know until June. So I kind of would like to keep my powder dry and see what it is that’s going to come before us before deciding that it’s not a good deal.”
While discussing the president’s deal King said, “There are some real questions. This is all about verification, Wolf. That’s the real issue. Ronald Reagan’s old line was trust, but verify. In this case it’s no trust, and verify like hell. That’s what really is going to make this deal either good or bad, is the level of verification that we can have on Iranian compliance.”
He added, “I’m not ready to say it’s a good deal or a bad deal. I want to see what they actually come up with. I like to have the facts before I shoot.”
But he insisted, “Congress will have a chance to weigh in and in fact, I’m supporting Bob Corker’s proposal, at least for now, that will give Congress a chance to weigh in, but you know, I’ve got to be convinced that those 46, 47 people that signed that letter are going to make the decision on the merits and not on some effort to embarrass the president or score points in a presidential primary. This is too serious. Is there no issue that we can’t turn into a partisan issue around here? Come on. Let’s see what this really says and then make our decisions accordingly.”
He concluded, “I disagree with the White House. I think Congress does have a significant role and I think it’s better for us to lay out what the sort of rules of the consideration of that role will be now rather than have it be a partisan free-for-all in a couple of months.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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