The top Democrat in the House has declared herself as chief booster for the Obama Administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, and vowed that the agreement will survive the coming onslaught from conservative legislators who oppose the diplomatic achievement.
“It will have my strong support,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday, adding that she plans to personally lobby members of her caucus to support the agreement.
“I think it’s really important that after all these negotiations, with all the engagement, the diplomacy, the wisdom, the brilliance, the ideas, and vision, and the compromises that have to be made, that this has to be supported,” she also said.
Pelosi promised that Democratic lawmakers would stand unified and prevent Republican leaders in the House from garnering enough votes to kill the agreement.
Opponents of the agreement are hoping to do that under the Iran Nuclear Review Act by passing a resolution of disapproval, but they will need a two-thirds majority to overcome the veto power that President Obama has already said he will wield in response.
The administration dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to the Hill Wednesday to rally House Democrats behind the pact—a maneuver that, according to one supportive lawmaker, Rep. Gerry Connely (D-Va.), was already paying dividends.
“The bottom line is [the briefing was] very reassuring,” Rep. Connely told The Hill Wednesday. “You could see heads shaking, and you could see people who had some doubts experience some clarity and reassurance.”
Pelosi noted on Thursday that her caucus is currently in the “education phase,” and that some members have “very strong questions.”
The Minority Leader described herself as happy to help them, striking a personal tone by commenting that one of her “early goals coming to Congress was to stop the proliferation of WMDs.”
“This is one of the joys of my service,” she said.
