Graham: I Only Signed the Iran Letter After Obama Told Congress To ‘Go to Hell’

‘Sanctions created by the Congress cannot be relieved by the Commander-in-Chief unless we agree ... this is not an imperial presidency, as much as he would like’

GRAHAM: "The president of the United States does not have the authority, in my view, to tell the Congress that we cannot look at a deal that would lead to the lifting of the sanctions that were created. I did not sign the letter until the president threatened to veto the bipartisan legislation I just described. The moment that he told the Congress basically to go to hell, I wanted him, the Iranians, and the world to know you cannot deal us out. So if he's contemplating a deal with the Iranians that would give congressional sanction relief and not allow us to have a say, he's flat wrong and that's why I signed the letter."

HEMMER: "You heard Hillary Clinton yesterday. She says you either want to help Iran or hurt the commander-in-chief?"

GRAHAM: "How about this Secretary Clinton: we want to stand up for the idea that sanctions created by the Congress cannot be relieved that the commander-in-chief, unless we agree. The only thing in this legislation deals with the lifting our congressional sanctions. And to Secretary Clinton: if you were president, would you deal Congress out? Would you threatened to veto a bill that's bipartisan, requiring Congress to review your deal before Congress agreed to lift the sanctions they created? This is a very big deal and there's only one commander-in-chief. But we are the Congress. We've created these sanctions, Bill, wish we have a say. And by the way, the Congress, the Senate, as it toppled four Arab capitals, we're not building ICBM's and we're not the largest state sponsor of terrorism. It is Iran and we haven't been lying about our nuclear ambitions for the last twenty years. So this is really a challenge to the Congress's authority to deal with things that we created. This is not an imperial presidency as much as he would like."

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact