On the recordMarch 6, 2023
I have a few statements I would like to make this morning, but I would like to respond to the Republican leader's statement that he just completed. I am not naive when it comes to Iran. I know what is happening there from press reports. Their treatment of women is abominable. There is no excuse for it. And the protests in the streets of Tehran and all across that country really are an expression of human dignity which the United States--at least I as a Senator in the United States--supports publicly. Secondly, there are no excuses for the assistance Iran is giving to Vladimir Putin and his ruthless attack on the people of Ukraine. I won't make excuses for that or any other terrorist conduct by Iran. But for the record--for the record--it was President Obama who moved forward with the notion that we ought to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. They are guilty of bad conduct in many quarters, but we didn't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We didn't think it made America any safer, the Middle East safer, or our allies like Israel any safer either. So President Obama pushed for an arms control when it came to the development of nuclear weapons, and Iran had put together a coalition which sounds amazing today.…
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