Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is blasting Senate Republicans for sending a letter to Iranian leaders that warned any nuclear deal with the U.S. could be voided.
“The recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership. And one has to ask, what was the purpose of this letter,” said Clinton during a Tuesday press conference at the United Nations to address her use of a personal email account while at the State Department.
{mosads}Clinton said there are only “two logical” explanations why the GOP sent the missive.
“Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander- in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy,” said Clinton, the likely 2016 Democratic frontrunner. “Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.”
Forty-seven Republican senators signed on to a letter this week to Iran’s leaders that said any agreement between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program could be negated by Congress and presidents in the future.
The letter, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sparked an uproar, with the White House and congressional Democrats slamming it as an effort to undermine the nuclear negotiations.
On Monday, President Obama accused GOP lawmakers of finding “common cause” with hard-line Iranians who are opposed to a nuclear deal with Iran.
Cotton has remained adamant that sending the letter was the right move.
“They’ve been killing Americans for 35 years, they’ve killed hundreds of troops in Iran, now they control five capitals in the Middle East,” Cotton said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“They are nothing but hard-liners in Iran, and if they do all of those things without a nuclear weapon, imagine what they would do with one.”