Cory Booker: “I thank my colleague, and Senator Shaheen as well, for emphasizing what I think needs to be emphasized, which is that we…”

“I thank my colleague, and Senator Shaheen as well, for emphasizing what I think needs to be emphasized, which is that we have in the IAEA an ability to do the most intrusive inspections ever before seen on the planet Earth. That agency--an important point Senator Shaheen was making--needs to be funded and funded well. We need to make sure the international community is standing there, and America needs to lead in that way. I anticipate hearing Senator Shaheen also make the point, though, that it is the height of malfeasance for us here in this country not to have people in the right places to do the other things necessary to hold Iran accountable. We can't sound like a hawk around the debate over the JCPOA and then sound like a chicken when it comes to putting the funding forward necessary to prevent them from engaging in destabilizing activities in the region. I am grateful Senator Shaheen will make that point further, but I just want to review again what has been accomplished come implementation date because it is still an extraordinary victory for diplomacy, taking the spectre of a nuclear- armed Iran and evaporating, eviscerating, pushing it back at least for 15 years. In that region, we now have the spectre of a nuclear-armed Iran pulled back, and we have the ability of moving forward with greater diplomacy. In order to get there, some pretty extraordinary things have happened.…”