Obama to sell Iran deal in campus speech

by Jordan Fabian - 07/31/15 1:38 PM ET

President Obama will make the case for the Iran nuclear agreement next Wednesday during a speech at American University, the White House announced Friday.

Press secretary Josh Earnest noted the school, tucked away in northwest Washington, D.C., is where President John F. Kennedy delivered a famous 1963 speech calling for “not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time” in the midst of the Cold War.

{mosads}The White House has made an all-out effort to sell the Iran deal to Congress and to the public.

It has sought to frame the debate as a choice between using diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining a weapon, and going to war.

Obama this week embarked on a personal lobbying push to persuade Democratic lawmakers to support the agreement ahead of the five-week August recess.

The president’s speech will be aimed at boosting public opinion on the deal, as critics are mounting a furious public relations effort against the deal.

Obama’s speech will also come one day before the first Republican presidential debate.

GOP presidential candidates, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have emerged as some of the staunchest critics of the agreement, arguing that it makes the U.S. and its allies less safe.

Huckabee said the deal is tantamount to leading Israelis “to the door of the oven” because of Iran’s threats toward the Jewish state.

Cruz has dubbed Obama himself a sponsor of terrorism, because Iran could funnel money from sanctions relief to extremist groups. On Thursday Earnest dismissed Cruz’s “outrageous” accusation.

Tags Barack Obama