Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted this little bomb in reaction to the Democrats getting the needed 34th vote this morning that locks in their ability to sustain a Presidential veto if necessary, “The Iranians have now secured enough Senate votes to ensure they have a pathway to a bomb, missile to deliver it, & money to pay for it”.
The Iranians have now secured enough Senate votes to ensure they have a pathway to a bomb, missile to deliver it, & money to pay for it.
— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) September 2, 2015
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
So, according to this well thought out and emotionally measured tweet, Sen. Graham is suggesting Senate Democrats are working for Iran, which supports terrorists. He then claims that Democrats have “ensured” that Iran has a pathway to a bomb and can deliver it. Of course, he’s ignoring the truth, as it’s hardly just Democrats who are supporting the Iran Deal. The world decided to go with this deal – saying it’s not perfect but it’s the best shot we have at stopping Iran. These nuances are lost on the bomb-throwing Senator from South Carolina.
Furthermore, there is no way that Graham can know that the Iran deal will result in x, when it hasn’t even been implemented yet. But this is the kind of childish, reactionary, bumper sticker rhetoric we’ve come to expect from the warmongers in the Republican party.
These are the same people who told us we had to invade Iraq cuz’ WMD. We shouldn’t wait to verify, they told us then. We might be dead before we get facts- best to act impulsively. So they must expect some questions, given not only their past bad judgment but also their repeated claims to know something as a fact that they have no way of knowing, or as happened with Iraq, they are actually dissembling about.
The United States wasn’t impressed with Republicans on Iraq and thus elected a diplomacy-first kinda president, and that is what they got with President Obama. Graham is upset that the President just got yet another foreign policy win, one that ensures not a pathway to a bomb but rather that we won’t be starting a preemptive war with Iran on his watch.
Still, Graham shouldn’t be accusing his colleagues of working for terrorists when in fact, leaders of the free world agree that implementation of the JCPOA is our best shot at cutting off Iran’s pathway to a nuclear weapon.
For all of the critics, MSNBC political reporter Benjy Sarlin made an excellent point:
For all focus on politics, strongest policy argument for Iran deal — other countries will drop sanctions — seems to be most influential
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) September 2, 2015
It wasn’t just up to the United States. This is a concept that Republicans simply refuse to grasp, but it is no less true for their denial.
Lindsey Graham insinuated that Senate Democrats are working for Iran, and he also believes that Iran wants to kill us all, so that’s pretty incendiary.
It’s also a large bit of projection from the party that is taking orders from a certain far-right leader in Israel. In truth, Senate Democrats are giving diplomacy a chance not because they think it’s a guarantee, but because it is the best chance we have. Diplomacy is not terrorism, no matter how upset it makes Lindsey Graham.
But claiming that the Iranians are now, as a direct result of said agreement, going to get a bomb and a missile and use it is actually using terrorist tactics to score political points. Luckily, the people aren’t fooled.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
