Following a letter warning Iranian leaders that the next president could change or undo any nuclear deal with their country, Sen. Tom Cotton (R.-Ark) went on Face the Nation to warn the American people that Iran’s control of its own capital was a mortal threat to the United States.
That Iran’s controlled Tehran since following the 13th century Mongol invasion of Persia seemed lost on the senator.
Host Bob Schieffer prodded Cotton on the thought process that led to the letter signed by 46 Republican senators.
“What is your alternative here?” Schieffer asked.
“The alternative to a bad deal is a better deal,” Cotton retorted, quoting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has consistently opposed the current deal under discussion and who has stated publicly he believes the Iranians are developing a nuclear weapon in order to destroy Israel.
Cotton stated he believed that Obama was negotiating to give Iran a nuclear bomb, a point repeatedly denied by the Obama administration.
Schieffer at one point compared the current Iran deal with the work of John F. Kennedy during the Cuba Missile Crisis, asking Cotton how the crisis might have ended if senators had been sending letters to the Soviets warning them any deal they cut with Kennedy might end with his presidency. Cotton rejected the comparison, but didn’t provide much of a rebuff.