Kasich: Iran Deal ‘Is a Bad Agreement’

‘We’re going to see Iran get a nuclear weapon and have loads of cash to be able to fund all of our adversaries and adversaries of our allies in the Middle East’

BLITZER: “Let’s move on, talk about something else that's –“

KASICH: “OK.”

BLITZER: “-- at least, very painfully, Iran nuclear deal. You heard one of your other competitors, the former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee say, this nuclear deal that the Obama administration worked on is, his words, ‘marching Israel to the doors of the oven.’ A reference to the holocaust. I assume you agree he went too far with that statement?”

KASICH: “Well, I haven't really studied what Huckabee has said, but I will tell you, Wolf, I think it's a bad agreement, I’ve actually been trying to get a hold of a Democrat who I think could be pivotal in this, because, what I think we're going to see is, we're going to see Iran get a nuclear weapon and then have loads of cash to be able to fund all of our adversaries and the adversaries our allies in the Middle East. So, I think it is a very bad deal. I am hoping that the United States Senate, first of all, I think they will vote this down, and then the question gets to be on whether they can override a presidential veto. And it's going to be a very important time for Democrats to decide what they want to do on this, and look, I’ve been in positions where I have had to vote against the president of my own party. I voted against U.S. troops in Lebanon, it didn't make people happy when I did it, but sometimes you got to do the right thing, and I think this is a wrong deal at the wrong time, with the wrong country.”

BLITZER: “If you were president, what would be your alternative?”

KASICH: “Listen, if I were there, I would first of all, have a better relationship with our allies, I would work on, I’m sure you scratched your head, Wolf, when we have those people murdered at that magazine over in France, and then they had the morning ceremony in Paris, we didn't bother to send anybody, really. We need to rebuild our alliances. And frankly, I would have left the sanctions on. You know, Mr. Net[sic] – I am sorry, we had a guy who sat in the Soviet prison for a long time, Sharansky, who wrote an op-ed piece saying that we face the same kind of thing against the Soviet Union when it came to Nixon making an agreement, it was voted down, Scoop Jackson led the way, and we ended up crushing the Soviet Union. I think robust sanctions spread even further would have gotten a change in their attitude and perhaps to change in their regime. What I would do now, hopefully the Senate will reject this, if they don't, I think we need to have all the parties to this agreement agreeing that if Iran makes one violation, that we slap the sanctions back on, and I think that's what we need to do. Look, until their behavior changes. And not just Americans or politician’s views, look at our Arab allies, what they had to say about this early on, they don't want to have more people who are trying to create tremendous problems for them, to be empowered, namely Hamas or Hezbollah.”

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