Sen. Menendez: Deal ‘Legitimizes Iran as a Threshold Nuclear State’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

Sen. BOB MENENDEZ: "Well, Jose, we're going to have to see the entirety of the deal and go through all the specifics because this is one moment in which the details make an enormous amount of consequence in terms of how they're written. Let's realize what the deal is and is not. Even in its framework. The deal ultimately legitimizes Iran as a threshold nuclear state. The deal doesn't end Iran's nuclear program. It preserves it.

"From what I have read so far, the deal doesn't provide for the anytime-anyplace inspections we wanted of suspected sites. The deal has a commission that ultimately will decide whether a violation can be pursued, and the clock on that potential violation, especially if it's access to sites that we suspect, when there is a dispute with Iran, would take, when you add up all the different elements, 24 days, nearly a month. So those are just elements that have come out that are worrisome, but we'll have to look at the totality of the agreement and see as Tom Friedman of the "New York Times" said about a week ago, is this the best bad deal that can be achieved?"