U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday that he's not ready to give up trying to persuade his colleagues to block the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration and five other nations.
The Republican from Dardanelle warned that the nuclear deal, no matter whether it is breached or followed, is "putting us on a path to a second nuclear age in which the risks of nuclear war are much greater" and the risks of a nuclear attack against the United States and its allies increase.
Obama, a Democrat, has maintained that the agreement will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that rejecting it would present the U.S. with only worse options, including another war.
Speaking before about 100 people at a Political Animals Club breakfast in Little Rock, Cotton said he suspects there will be "a strong majority" that's bipartisan in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House voting for legislation to reject the agreement.
He noted that Democratic U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Democratic U.S. Rep. Elliot Engel of New York are opposing it.
Cotton later told reporters that there are still enough undecided votes in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to reach a two-thirds majority to override a likely veto by Obama of the resolution disapproving the Iran deal.
"We'll just have to see how it plays out in the next two or three weeks," he said. "I am going to do everything I can to try to persuade two-thirds of my colleagues to join the strong majority that's opposed to this deal."
Cotton later issued a written statement criticizing U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada after reports that Reid may filibuster the U.S. Senate's vote on the Iran nuclear deal.
Reid said Monday that filibustering a bill to disapprove of the nuclear deal with Iran would be "a long shot" but that he hasn't given up hope that he can round up the 41 votes necessary to do so.
Cotton said Tuesday in the statement that "now Harry Reid wants to deny the American people a voice entirely by blocking an up-or-down vote on this terrible deal," and "he knows that a majority of Americans and senators oppose this dangerous deal, and that its only chance for survival is if he and the president ram it down the throats of the American people."
A White House spokesman later rejected Cotton's criticism, according to a transcript released by the White House.
Principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said that "the oversight architecture put in place for Congress on this deal was legislation that passed Congress. So if Sen. Cotton has an issue with what his own colleagues agreed to, then he should probably take it up with them."
In Little Rock, Cotton told reporters that he isn't ready to endorse any of the Republican presidential hopefuls.
"There is a lot of great candidates. I know them whether I serve with them in the Senate or whether I've met them through the course of politics. But I am fully focused on the work I am doing in the Senate," he said.
Cotton also said he doesn't want to see the federal government shut down again.
"I want to have the government funded, and I want to have it reflect the priorities of the people of Arkansas. I would say some of those priorities are not spending our money on an organization like Planned Parenthood that has shown such a callous disregard for human life," he said.
He said he also wants the military to be adequately funded.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 08/26/2015