House Democrats have the votes, if necessary, to uphold President Barack Obama’s veto of a resolution against his Iran nuclear deal, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.
Pelosi said that if such a vote were held today there would be enough support among House Democrats for Obama to prevail.
That would take 146 House Democrats, and fewer than 60 have publicly declared their support so far.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi declined to disclose her private vote count but expressed confidence in the outcome.
“The president’s veto would be sustained” if the vote were held today, Pelosi said, adding she hopes it doesn’t get to that point. “But I feel very confident about it.”
Congress will vote next month on a resolution to disapprove of the nuclear deal with Iran. Republican opponents expect to prevail on that vote, although the outcome is not certain.
Even if the resolution of disapproval does pass the House and Senate, Obama has made clear he would veto it, focusing attention on efforts to override his veto. Doing so would require two-thirds votes in the House and the Senate, an outcome even Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has suggested is unlikely.
Two more Senate Democrats announced their support for the deal Wednesday, bringing the list of declared supporters in that chamber to 25 with only two Democrats opposed. It would take 34 votes in the Senate to sustain Obama’s veto, but it only takes one of the two chambers of Congress to uphold a veto.
Pelosi’s comments came as Republicans sounded alarms over an AP report disclosing a secret agreement between Iran and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that would allow Iran to use its own inspectors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms.
Iran on Thursday spoke of “media speculation” without denying the report.
Pelosi shrugged off the revelation, noting it relates to an agreement over past nuclear development. She emphasized her support for the overall deal negotiated between the U.S., five other leading nations and Iran, which would require Iran to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. “I truly believe in this agreement,” she said.
(AP)
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The Democrats paid a steep price for stabbing the Vietnamese in the back, and the Israelis are a lot more popular among Americans than the Vietnamese were.
The isolationists (in both parties) were so badly damaged by their follies in the 1930s, that it took almost a lifetime before any American politician dared to express isolationist sentiments.
And they are taking this risk in opposing the Iran agreement for something that the president is afraid to submit as a treaty (which would make it legally binding), and with full knowledge that any financial aspects (which require an act of Congress) won’t be implemented — and since all this agreement is, is no more than a non-ratified treaty it is merely an expression of policy that expires on Jan. 21, 2017.