Obama: I Expect Debate in Congress To Be Based on Facts, Not Speculation or Misinformation

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
OBAMA: Now, with respect to Congress, my hope -- I won't prejudge this -- is that everyone in Congress also evaluates this agreement based on the facts. Not on politics, not on posturing. Not on the fact that this is a deal I bring to Congress as opposed to a Republican president. Not based on lobbying, but based on what niece the national interest in the United States of America. And I think if Congress does that in fact based on the facts the majority of Congress should approve of this deal. But we live in Washington and politics do intrude. And as I said in an interview yesterday, I am not betting on the Republican party rallying behind this agreement. I do expect the debate to be based on facts and not speculation or misinformation. And that I welcome. In part, because look there are -- there are legitimate real concerns here. We've already talked about it. We have huge differences with Iran. Israel has legitimate concerns about its security relative to Iran. You have a large country with a significant military that has proclaimed that Israel shouldn't exist, that has denied the holocaust, that has financed Hezbollah and as a consequence there are missiles that are pointed towards tel aviv. And so I think there are very good reasons why Israelis are nervous about Iran's position in the world generally. And I've said this to prime minister Netanyahu, I've said it directly to the Israeli people. But what I've also said is that all those threats are compounded if Iran gets a nuclear weapon. And for all the objections of prime minister Netanyahu or for that matter some of the Republican leadership that's already spoken, none of them have presented to me or the American people a better alternative. I'm hearing a lot of talking points being repeated and this is a bad deal. This is a historically bad deal. This will threaten Israel and threaten the world, threaten the United States. There's been a lot of that. What I haven't heard is what is your preferred alternative? If 99% of the world community and the majority of nuclear experts look at this thing and they say this will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and you are arguing either that it does not or that even if it does it's temporary or that because they're going to get a windfall of their accounts being unfrozen that they'll cause more problem S then you should have some alternative to present. And I haven't heard that."