Cotton: Iran Doesn’t Take Obama ‘Seriously’

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) stated that Iran doesn’t take President Obama “seriously” on Wednesday’s “Situation Room” on CNN.

Cotton said, “President Obama has said all along that the military option is on the table. We need Iran to take him seriously. Unfortunately, because of his actions, and because of his words, I don’t think they do take him seriously.”

Earlier, Cotton responded to Bill Clinton’s defense of President Obama’s Iran policy, stating, “President Clinton is wrong on this point. It’s not surprising me that he would defend President Obama’s very dangerous Iran deal. First, it’s modeled on President Clinton’s agreed framework with North Korea in 1994, which led to North Korea getting a nuclear weapon just twelve years later. They now have dozens, they may be on the path to hundreds with missiles that could strike the United States. Second, his wife as secretary of state helped set these negotiations in progress. Now, what he specifically said about the world could change in ten years, that sounds to me like making hope a strategy. Whether Iran gets a nuclear tomorrow or gets it ten years from now, it’s a grave threat to the region and to the United States. And, in the meantime, they’re going to get tens of billions dollars of sanctions relief. They’re not going to use that on schools or hospitals or roads, they’re going to use it to continue to be the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”

He added, “Bill Clinton took military action in December of 1998 against Iraq, against their weapons of mass destruction facilities, and their command and control facilities. That’s the exact kind of air and naval bombing campaign that military action against Iran would look like. And yes, while it may only set it back a few years, that’s better than giving Iran tens of billions of dollars to use to support terrorism against Israel and the United States in the interim, and putting them on the path to a nuclear weapon, if that’s what it take[s]. What I would rather see though, is a better deal that supports America and that supports our allies in the region, who are crying out for our administration to drive a better deal.”

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