Senate leader to Obama: Stop demonizing Iran deal opponents

When asked if he could support a spending bill that also funded Planned Parenthood, Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn indicated that the 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare wasn’t far from his mind. The remarks also followed a tumultuous early debate over the nuclear agreement in which Republican opponents of the agreement have used strong language to criticize Obama.

“The alternative to this deal was never war, it was greater pressure on Iran and insistence on a better agreement”. Objecting to Obama’s “lack of realism”, the pair says that his pro-diplomacy actions have “repeatedly resulted either in failed deals or bad deals”.

“In his speech at American University in Washington that lasted almost an hour, Obama warned that no deal with Iran would put the United States on the path toward another Mideast war”. “So I think this issue is of such magnitude that I hope we will not be having committee meetings [and] we’ll actually have a debate that rises to the occasion that this seems to require”.

The House has not scheduled a vote on the deal. Opposition is nearly solid from Republicans arguing that the U.S. gave away too much and from many Democrats sympathetic to Israel, which considers the pact a disaster.

Obama needs 146 Democrats in the House or 34 in the Senate to sustain a veto.

King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “The Situation Room” Wednesday that the choice was “literally the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make”. “And regardless of how the president talks about it, regardless of what his incendiary rhetoric is, we’re going to deal with this in a respectful way, dealing with the facts surrounding the issue and treat it with the dignity and respect that it deserves here in the Senate”.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the pact would make the Obama administration “the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism” because lifting the sanctions would restore money to Iran that it could use to support terrorist groups it sponsors. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced her support on Thursday, saying it was an “imperfect” agreement but deserved Congress’ support because Iran had made essential concessions and the deal would provide inspectors with access they otherwise would not have had to Iran’s nuclear sites. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Wednesday that he would back the White House, but the plans of other key Democrats are less clear.

When Congress returns after Labor Day, lawmakers will face a fall packed with do-or-die deadlines, including a September abbreviated by the Jewish holidays to just 10 days when both chambers are simultaneously in session.

Federal agencies’ budgets expire October. 1, so Congress will likely pass legislation keeping the doors open for several weeks while leaders negotiate an overall spending package.