Urge liberal groups to launch lobbying campaign
VIENNA—White House officials on Monday held a private
conference call with liberal organizations to discuss ways of pressuring
Democrats and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill into supporting a nuclear deal
with Iran that is expected to be finalized in the coming days, according to an
audio recording of that call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The call, in which there were more than 100
participants, was organized by the liberal pro-Iran group Ploughshares
Fund, which has spent millions of dollars to slant Iran-related
coverage and protect the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts.
The White House officials described a nuclear deal with Iran
as President Obama’s “signature foreign policy accomplishment” and urged
liberal groups to launch an all-out lobbying campaign to pressure lawmakers,
especially Democrats, to back the deal.
Progressive leaders on the call told participants to prepare
for a “real war” and repeatedly declared that “the other side will go crazy” in
the coming days. The call also included the anti-war group MoveOn.org.
“This has really been on the front burner from a foreign
perspective, although not in the public eye necessarily, since the very
beginning,” Matt Nosanchuk, an official in the White House Office of Public
Engagement, told participants. “This is not an issue of the day, this is really
an issue of the presidency.”
The second White House official, John Bisognano, went on to
stress “the importance of this to the president.”
“This is clearly an issue that is very close to his heart and
something that’s extraordinarily important for the future of frankly the
world,” Bisognano said. “I want to make sure everyone understands this is a top
priority for the administration, and this is clearly something that we’re all
focused on moving forward and excited about hoping that we can come to a solid
agreement.”
Leaders of the call emphasized that the assembled groups
should target Democrats in order to build a veto-proof majority when the deal
eventually comes to Congress for a vote.
Robert Creamer, a member of the liberal political shop Democracy
Partners and the general consultant to the anti-Republican Americans United for Change,
urged participants on the call to “step up” their pro-Iran efforts.
“We have to take to our memberships all over the country,”
Creamer said during the call. “We all have to step up. The other side will go
crazy with intensity.”
Progressives should target Democrats by “blitzing the hell
out of the Hill,” Creamer said.
“What will be ultimately decisive is the level of intensity
that members of Congress feel, particularly Democrats,” said Creamer.
“Democrats are actually the key people here because if we can have enough votes
to prevent a presidential veto override [of the deal], then we win.”
“That means tons of phone calls, lots of lobbying contacts,
not just a couple of good conversations, I mean just blitzing the hell out of
the Hill,” he said, rallying participants to prepare for “a big, big battle”
over the deal. “This is going to be a real war for the next week.”
At another point in the call, Creamer jumped in to offer a
word of encouragement from his wife, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.).
“Let me just also note, my wife, Congresswoman Schakowsky,
just yelled across the room to me to make clear to everybody that we have to be
clear that this is a good deal because it prevents Iran from getting a nuclear
weapon,” Creamer said. “The other side will go crazy. We have to be really
clear that it’s a good deal.”
Nosanchuk sought to defend the administration from critics
who are concerned that the billions of dollars in economic sanctions relief to
Iran will be used to fund the country’s terrorist activities.
“With respect to criticisms that any agreement that affords
sanctions relief will open the floodgates so that Iran receives all this money
it can then pour into its nefarious activities in the region, our response to
that is they’re doing it anyway,” Nosanchuk said, explaining that the
administration believes Iran will use the money to fix its stagnating economy.
“Our expectation is that sanctions relief will go into
bolstering the Iranian economy and not into supporting all these other
activities, which as I pointed out, are being supported anyway,” he said.
The White House officials told participants the administration
is invested in trying to reach an agreement by July 9.
That date has been set by Congress as the last day the
administration can submit a draft of any final deal for a 30-day review by
lawmakers. Any draft submitted between July 10 and Sept. 7 would sit in front
of Congress for 60 days, providing lawmakers with extra time to scrutinize the
deal.
Nosanchuk explained that if Congress fails to act within this
time period, “the president has the authority to issue waivers and begin
implementing the agreement” without legislative approval.
The White House remains confident that if Congress rejects
the deal, the president could veto that action and continue to move forward.
“They could vote to approve it or they vote to disapprove it,
and then, of course, if that occurs, we’re put in the position of having to
sustain a veto by the president, which we’ll want to work very hard, and we’re
confident that if congressional action does take place, we’ll come out on the
other side of this with the deal in tact and the president’s signature foreign
policy accomplishment being upheld,” said Nosanchuk.
