Bernie Sanders, After Call From Obama, Announces Support for Iran Deal - NYT

[WillyT]

Bernie Sanders, After Call From Obama, Announces Support for Iran Deal
By Jason Horowitz - NYT
8/7/15

<snip>

A day after Senator Chuck Schumer of New York announced his decision to vote against President Obama’s deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, he and the president each placed a call to Bernie Sanders.

And both seemed to hang up happy.

Mr. Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who has become the progressive darling of the Democratic presidential primary, received a call Friday morning from Mr. Schumer, the most influential Jewish member of Congress, who was reaching out to a number of fellow senators explaining the rationale for his opposition.

The subtext of the calls, of course, was Mr. Schumer’s desire to smooth his ascent as leader of the Democratic caucus. Liberals have already begun criticizing Mr. Schumer for his stance on the Iran deal, suggesting that it should disqualify him from becoming the party’s leader in the Senate.

“I talked to Chuck this morning,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview.

And judging from Mr. Sanders’s comments, it went well for Mr. Schumer.

Asked if he thought other Democratic senators would follow Mr. Schumer in breaking with the president on one of the most important foreign policy issues of his administration, Mr. Sanders said: “Yeah, I do. I think there is, on very, very difficult votes, votes of conscience.

“It’s hard,” he continued, saying that the current Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and the minority whip, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, “will do their best to get a party line vote — and they are often successful or 98 percent successful.”

“But there are votes – we are sent here by our constituents and you can’t go home and say, ‘Well I really thought this an enormously important vote, I should have voted yes, but the leadership told me to vote no, so I voted no’ — you can’t do that,” Mr. Sanders said.

He added: “Chuck is a very smart guy and a very good senator. He and I will probably end up disagreeing on this vote.”

A few hours later, his phone rang again. This time Mr. Obama was calling.

Mr. Sanders, in an interview Friday afternoon, said the lengthy conversation he had with the president clinched his support for the administration’s Iran deal.

“I was leaning towards supporting it,” Mr. Sanders said. “I had some questions that I addressed to the president, and he responded. The answers that he gave me helped me reach the final conclusion.”

Mr. Sanders, in a statement, gave credit to Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry for achieving the deal. Asked if Hillary Rodham Clinton, who started the process as secretary of state and is Mr. Sanders’s main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, deserved credit, he said: “Sure. A lot of people were involved. As secretary of state, she played a role and an important role, and I credit her.”

Here is Mr. Sanders’s full statement supporting the deal:

<snip>

More: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/08/07/bernie-sanders-appears-to-give-schumer-obama-answers-they-want/

[artislife]

1. A call from one President to the next president! nt

[Chemisse]

2. He is a class act.

He doesn't have a mean word to say about any of his fellow Dems.

[jalan48]

6. I agree. I was thinking the same exact thing.

[daa]

3. Is Shummer running

For head of the Knesset?

[Fuddnik]

10. No, that would be DWS.

[99th_Monkey]

4. Right on Bernie!!

Besides being the right thing to do for ME peace, Bernie is showing
what real Democratic Statesmanship looks like.

Makes me even prouder to support Bernie's bid for POTUS.

[George II]

8. Unlike the leading candidate who did some of the groundwork for this agreement?

[Fred Sanders]

5. Schumer also had a private phone call with Sanders. All hail Obama and Sanders!

[George II]

7. This was posted about four hours ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1169980

AND, it has nothing to do with the Primaries.

[NCTraveler]

9. Obama has proven to be an excellent leader.

And this isn't a hard vote.

[Ed Suspicious]

11. Telling that Bernie is taking calls from the president. I think he has been elevated in the minds

of the establishment. It is a recognition of the pull the man now has with the public. Go Bernie!

[delrem]

12. I do not like what he said to Chuck Schumer.

The Iran deal that Obama/Kerry negotiated (notice that it wasn't Obama/Clinton - and it's just WAY too bad that Obama hadn't chosen Kerry from the start, because the mess wouldn't have become so much more complicated) is essential to ending the "War on Terror" and entering a peaceful phase.

The Iran deal wasn't just negotiated between Obama/Kerry and Iran, but between the P5+1 and Iran, which is the UN security council China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany.

So now it's "a matter of conscience" for some senator, some wannabe Dem Senate leader no less, whether they should support it?

This isn't just a "matter of conscience" as it would be for an issue that's solely about a person's immediate action, as in "should I walk across the street to hand that homeless person a fiver?" This is an issue of walking a first step toward putting a stop to the havoc that the US has brought to the ME, over decades and the deaths of millions and the destruction of whole countries. It's a step to ending the entirely artificial "civil war" between Sunni and Shia, as egged on and funded by the USA. A first step.

This is a disappointment. A big, big, disappointment.

[beam me up scottie]

13. Way to go President Obama, SOS Kerry and Senator Sanders!

Give peace a chance!

K & R

[delrem]

14. I DON'T agree with his statement to Schumer. I DON'T.

That statement CONTRADICTS your "Give peace a chance".

How am I wrong?

[Comrade Grumpy]

15. Sorry, you're disappointed. Bernie is being gentlemanly with his Senate colleague.

The important thing is that Bernie is voting the right way. And you're mad because he didn't attack Schumer enough for you?

[delrem]

17. Yes.

[beam me up scottie]

16. Seriously?

Why should Bernie go off on Chuck Schumer?

He talked with him and if the discussion satified Bernie that's good enough for me.

[delrem]

18. I said my piece. That's my statement.

I don't want Chuck Schumer and co. to derail Obama's Iran initiative.

Got it?

[beam me up scottie]

19. Then tell it to Chuck, not me.

I respect Bernie too much to attack him for not attacking Schumer.

What has gotten into you?

[delrem]

20. I support the Iran deal. It's - just totally - the best deal possible outside of war.

That's what's gotten into me.

I don't like Lindsey Graham. I don't like the people the Schumer is aligning himself with.
I think they're sick.

[beam me up scottie]

21. I agree.

We knew this wasn't going to be easy and it's far from over.

I'm just glad there is a deal.

[delrem]

22. But there won't be "a deal" if Chuck Shumer has his way.

Got it?

[beam me up scottie]

23. I am aware of the situation, thank you.

If you're spoiling for a fight you'll have to look elsewhere.

[delrem]

24. I'm not "spoiling for a fight". You responded to *me*.

Thank you very much.

[beam me up scottie]

25. Have you been drinking?

Cuz I distinctly remember you responded to me first.

Anyway, this is silly.

[delrem]

26. I'm angered.

I'm angered that Chuck Schumer's effort to derail the Iran deal is taken so fucking lightly by you and others supposedly on the "left", just so you can get along with Bernie in this one instance.

It makes me fucking sick.

I wanted unqualified support for the Iran deal from Bernie. As a matter of principle.
He failed.

You want to talk about "nuance", that comes later, not while agreeing with Lindsey Graham that the deal should well be scuttled "as a matter of conscience", as if it were some correct moral choice.

[beam me up scottie]

27. You have no fucking idea if I or anyone else here is taking it lightly.

You really think I get my news and opinions from DUers? Or come here to discuss important issues? If I took this place seriously I would have left a long time ago.

You want to talk about "nuance", that comes later, not while agreeing with Lindsey Graham that the deal should well be scuttled "as a matter of conscience", as if it were some correct moral choice.

Get a grip. I never said I wanted to talk about anything.

[delrem]

28. Then I'll repeat my initial statement, since you had nothing to contribute:

I DON'T agree with his statement to Schumer. I DON'T.

That statement CONTRADICTS your "Give peace a chance".

How am I wrong?

[beam me up scottie]

29. I'm not doing this.

If you want to fight with someone over the Iran deal go to GD.

Bernie was the one who said "give peace a chance", and before you go off about that you can take it up with him.

[delrem]

30. You make no sense.

[beam me up scottie]

31. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251500412

[delrem]

32. That is orthogonal to his statement of support for Chuck Schumer's

"vote of conscience".

And that contradiction was evident from the beginning.

This isn't something for make believe. It isn't another Hillary Clinton moment.

Bernie Sanders ought to have opposed Chuck Schumer, explaining why.
He didn't. He turned it into a "vote of conscience" instead. In fact, he opened the door for other such "votes of conscience".
That's my objection.

[beam me up scottie]

33. So you don't think Schumer is allowed to vote his conscience?

I'm not sure why you're using scare quotes, is that code for something else?

[JI7]

34. great news , hopefully the rest of the senators do the same

[ladjf]

35. How nice to hear a politician speaking in a dignified style with and about

his colleagues. The Senator is a high class person without being the least bit stuffy. He is a people's politician.

[Babel_17]

36. This is going to be an important vote, it will reverbate in the primaries, and the GE

When Senator Sanders goes on record explaining his vote in support of the deal it will serve as a pointed, and highly relevant, contrast to the position of Senator Schumer.

P.S. Interesting article but the writer was a bit breezier with constructing it than I care for. Given the importance of Sanders quoted answers I think it incumbent to also include quotes of the actual questions.