{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-discusses-future-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal-administrations-proposed-uae-arms-sale-and-progressive-foreign-policy-priorities-for-next-congress-on-pod-save-the-world", "Murphy Discusses Future Of The Iran Nuclear Deal, Administrations Proposed UAE Arms Sale, And Progressive Foreign Policy Priorities For Next Congress On Pod Save The WorldRead More", "2020-12-02", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONU.S. Senator\r\nChris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations\r\nCommittee, joinedPodSave\r\nthe Worldthis weekto discuss the assassination of a Iranian nuclear scientist and the\r\nfuture of the Iran nuclear deal in the post-Trump era,the Trump\r\nadministration's rushed arms sale to the United Arab Emirates (UAE),\r\nandhis progressive foreign policy goals for the new Congress and incoming\r\nBiden-Harris administration. On the assassination of foreign\r\nleaders andlong-term stability in the Middle East, Murphy said:There's a good reason why we don't\r\nassassinate foreign leaders. Because when we engage in that kind of behavior,\r\nit ultimately lends an authority to that kind of action that can ultimately\r\nboomerang on the United States. There's a reason why we pressed the Israelis to\r\nforego these kind of actions during the eight years of the Obama\r\nadministration. And if this is really about trying to\r\ntie the hands of the Biden administration with respect to re-entering the\r\nnuclear agreement, it's absolutely disastrous because there is no path to a\r\nsafer Middle East without our ability to restart at least some elements of that\r\nagreement. And so we don't have all the full details, we have not been briefed\r\ninside Congress about this, but if the United States had something to do with\r\nthis, it is going to accrue to the detriment of America's security  both in\r\nthe short run and in the long run. On the future of the Iran nuclear deal\r\nin the post-Trump era, Murphy said:I don't think the dividing lines on this issue have\r\nfundamentally changed over the last four years. I don't think that there are\r\nDemocrats that supported the JCPOA that now would draw a new line. I also don't\r\nthink there are a lot of converts to our side. I don't think there are likely\r\nmany Republicans that have changed their mind. They want all of these issues to\r\nbe litigated. The problem for Republicans is that\r\nthey have now had four years to test their theory of the case, right? Donald\r\nTrump came in, obliterated the JCPOA, and articulated the Republican case,\r\nwhich is that we should ramp up sanctions, sort of blow past the levels that\r\nwere in place prior to the JCPOA as a means of getting the Iranians to come to\r\nthe table on everything. And Mike Pompeo wrote down what everything was. He had\r\nthese 12 demands of the Iranians. He had four years to effectuate this policy.\r\nAnd he didn't just fail, Pompeo failed miserably. Not only did he not get the\r\nIranians to the table on any of his 12 demands, the Iraniansgot closer to\r\na nuclear weapon. They're now two months away rather than 12 months away, they\r\nstarted shooting American troops inside Iraq  something they weren't doing\r\nwhen Donald Trump took over. Murphy added:And so while Republicans are going to\r\nobject to getting back into the deal, they really don't have a leg to stand on\r\nbecause we've tried their way and it didn't work. So I think the support exists\r\ncertainly within Democratic party for Biden to re-enter the agreement. But\r\nremember, there are two sides here. And the Iranians are also going to ask for\r\nmore. The Iranians are going to say well, we want reparations for all the\r\ndamage done to our economy once you've walked away.' And we shouldn't be\r\nwilling to agree to that, but we should also just understand that it's not just\r\nthe United States that's going to be driving a hard bargain if we're back at\r\nthe table with the Iraniansthey're going to be driving a hard bargain as\r\nwell.  On the Trump\r\nadministration'srushed arms sale tothe UAE and dangerous arms race\r\nit is fueling across the Middle East, Murphy said:First, we all have to assume that\r\nthere was some invisible ink on the Abraham Accords and that when you reveal it\r\nyou find Reaper drones. And so I do think there will be a question as to\r\nwhether the UAE feels like it has to make good on its commitments if the United\r\nStates doesn't ultimately deliver all of the weapons in the sale. And by the\r\nway, this is a dizzying array of lethal arms that we have never, ever been\r\nwilling to send into the Middle East. Why on earth does the Middle East\r\nneed Reaper drones, nevermind F-35s, especially when the recipient of these\r\ndrones has been regularly participating in the killing of civilians, either by\r\naccident or on purpose inside of Yemen? So I think the briefing that we got\r\nlast night, I hope was equally disturbing for Republicans and Democrats. It was\r\ncrystal clear that the administration is rushing this sale through and has not\r\ndotted I's and crossed T's, that the Emiratis have all sorts of commitments\r\nthey would need to make that they have not yet made in order to receive these\r\nweapons. Murphy continued: And so without getting into the\r\ndetails of how this sale is structured, it is likely that even if Congress\r\ncouldn't overturn this sale before the end of the year, there would be an awful\r\nlot still to do under a Biden administration and that the Biden administration\r\nmay have some ability to hold back some of these weapons or place new\r\nconditions on them. It's just impossible to get this large of a sale actually\r\ndone and completed before January 20.And my hope is that whether or not\r\nthis gets sort of officially noticed before Biden takes office, he'll take a\r\nfresh look at whether there's wisdom in giving this level of arms to a country\r\nthat has a history of violating arms embargoes, transferring weapons to Salafist\r\nmilitias inside the Middle East, and occasionally killing civilians with\r\nweapons we've already given them. OnPresident-elect Joe Biden's\r\nforeign policy and national securitynominees, Murphy said:I love everyone individually who has\r\nbeen appointed to this team. I don't know all of them well, but those that I do\r\nare smart, they're principled, and many of them are very open to these new\r\nideas. Specifically, I've talked to Tony Blinken at length about my belief that\r\nwe have become, as I said in that thread, sclerotic in the tools that we\r\ndeploy. Murphy also discussed his progressive\r\nforeign policy goals in the new Congress and new administration:I mean, today, we essentially sell\r\nweapons to our friends and we sanction our adversaries. And we are sort of left\r\nwith a really narrow set of options when we're trying to protect our interests\r\naround the globe. So I've made the case that we should be doubling, at the very\r\nleast, the size of our smart power tools, right? Things like hard dollars to\r\nuse to make countries energy independent of Russia, real resources to combat\r\npropaganda around the world, not just a couple extra dollars thrown to Twitter\r\nthreadsand I think this team is open to it. Would I like to see somebody on the\r\nnational security team that has not served in office before? Sure. I think it\r\nserves every president to have some folks at the upper echelon of their\r\nnational security team,who come in as real outsiders. But the folks that\r\nhave been named so far, I think, are open to some of these new ideas. But I\r\nwill add that a lot of this is dependent upon Congress. The president plays the\r\ncards that he has in his hand, and it's the budget that gives the president\r\ncards. So long as Congress keeps approving budgets where we spend 20 times as much\r\nmoney on defense and intelligence as we do on the State Department and USAID,\r\nthere's not much the president can do with that limited toolkit. Click here\r\nto listen to the interview in full. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-discusses-future-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal-administrations-proposed-uae-arms-sale-and-progressive-foreign-policy-priorities-for-next-congress-on-pod-save-the-world"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7477749604731798, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}