Nolte: Never Trump Grifters John Kasich and Jeff Flake Flip-Flop on Iran Deal

Collage of John Kasich and Jeff Flake
Associated Press

Remember how during the 2016 presidential primary those oh-so principled Never Trumpers kept warning us that Donald Trump was a con man, a faux conservative, a secret Democrat making promises (including about exiting the Iran deal) he had no intention of keeping? Remember how those oh-so principled Never Trumpers told us that anyone who believed Trump’s promises was a bumpkin, a hillbilly, a yokel, a jake, a hick, a clodhopper, a Grade A hayseed?

Well, here we sit 15 months into Trump’s presidency, a presidency where he has proved to be the most promising-keeping-sumbitch-of-a-president in my lifetime. And here is Never Trump once again proving themselves to be the true soy boy swindlers.

Yes, while Trump kept his promise to exit the disastrous Iran deal, a promise he made countless times on the campaign trail, look who was actually lying to us — no less than oh-so principled Never Trump Resistance Leaders Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Gov. John Kasich (R-OH),  who were both against the Iran deal before they were for it.

With an 18 percent approval rating in his home state, and to avoid a humiliating primary loss, Flake has wisely chosen not to run for re-election. But when he still thought he would have to face voters, Flake strongly and publicly opposed the Iran deal.

“While Congress has received assurances from the administration that it does not forfeit its ability to impose sanctions on Iran for behavior on the non-nuclear side, these assurances do not square with the text of the [agreement],” Flake said (quite correctly) at the time.

But now, we know that this Never Trumper was hustling us because now, Flake is magically in favor of the Iran deal and is even slamming Trump (on far-left CNN, naturally) for keeping his promise to withdraw:

Kasich is even worse. If you recall (and it is certainly understandable if you don’t), Kasich ran for president in 2016, and while running for president, Kasich told us over and over again that he was so gosh-darned opposed to the Iran deal, he wanted the Senate to go “nuclear” to stop it.

Per NBC News, the “Ohio governor regularly slams the Iran deal on the campaign trail, and he told the crowd on Tuesday ‘it’s a bad agreement. There are so many very poor parts of this thing.’”

Opposing the Iran deal was a major talking point for this son-of-a-mailman during his humiliating presidential run.

Kasich did say he would not tear the deal up on day one, that he would only withdraw if Iran violated the agreement. But today, and even though Iran has repeatedly violated the agreement, oh-so principled Kasich is all but admitting his prior opposition to the deal was a shell game.

“President Trump’s decision to withdraw … was a mistake. It has gotten us nothing other than to remove constraints on Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons,” Kasich now says:

So it was not Trump who was swindling us with red meat on the campaign trail. It was not Trump who was conning us with rhetoric about being opposed to the deal. It was oh-so principled Never Trump.

In other words, voting for an establishment hack like Kasich would have been the true sucker move.

But we rubes already knew that.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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