(Video Above: Congressman Bradley Byrne blasts the Iran deal in a heated committee meeting)
WASHINGTON — Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-AL1) Tuesday delivered heated remarks during a rare evening meeting of the House Rules Committee, outlining his opposition to President Obama’s deal with Iran.
“The truth of the matter is that this will provide money to a regime that takes that money and gives it to terrorist groups that target U.S. military personnel and have killed them,” Rep. Byrne began. “This will increase the likelihood of that, not decrease it.”
Byrne was briefly interrupted by ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who supports the deal.
“This is not about what’s happening in Syria right now, it’s what’s happening in Iran and what Iran intends to do throughout the Middle East against the interests and the people of the United States of America. In 1938 England decided to go to Munich and appease Hitler. You know what happened? We had WWII. Winston Churchill wrote a book called…
Byrne was once more interrupted by McGovern.
“I did not give up my time, Mr. McGovern,” he shot back . “I still have my time.”
“Winston Churchill wrote a book called While England Slept. John F. Kennedy, as a senior at Harvard, wrote his senior thesis called “Why England Slept.” I can’t imagine John F. Kennedy agreeing to this agreement knowing what we know from these non-partisan professionals who deal with the defense of our country,” Byrne said, referring to the military leaders who had testified before the Committee.
“I think it behooves us in this Congress to understand that our main job here is to defend the American people,” the Congressman continued.
“This deal, based upon what we know from the non-partisan professionals that defend this country, endangers the American people, and I will vote against, and I hope we will have a vigorous debate on the floor about it, so we can make sure the people of America know what the truth is, and so we can have a vote so everybody in America can know where we all stand as their representatives. At the end of the day, the American people can make their decision about whether we made the wrong decision or not.”
Since the deal was announced, Byrne, and the other Republican members of Alabama’s delegation have slammed President Obama’s willingness to make concessions to Iran, which has long been considered an untrustworthy “rogue state.”
Opponents say the deal with all but ensure the Islamic theocracy, which has been accused of supporting terrorist groups including ISIS, maintains the ability to build nuclear weapons.
“This deal was negotiated because somebody had a desire to get an agreement almost under any circumstance,” said Rep. Byrne. “If you look at what General Dempsey said, he said under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities.”
“You know what? Under these circumstances, we did it. And why America would sleep in the middle of that I don’t understand.”
Enough U.S. Senators, 34, have said they support the deal to make sure an Obama veto of legislation blocking it wouldn’t be overridden.
Watch Byrne’s entire heated exchange in the video above.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
