Look Who it Was Random video

From the Vault: Opposition Party Circumvents President's Foreign Policy

553 views · Published 11 March 2015 · 1:31 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Washington Week PBS · 2015 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

This week, 47 Republican senators sent an open letter to leaders of Iran warning the Islamic Republic about agreeing to a nuclear agreement with the Obama administration. The letter, written by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton and signed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, tells Iran's leaders, "who may not fully understand our constitutional system," that any agreement would have to be ratified by Congress or would risk being reversed by the next president.  

"President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then -- perhaps decades," the letter reads, in part.

The White House and Vice President Biden -- a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair -- strongly condemned the letter in a press release.  

"In 36 years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote directly to advise another country -- much less a longtime foreign adversary -- that the President does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them," Biden said. "This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments -- a message that is as false as it is dangerous."

The two party's positions about foreign policy are a sharp reversal from just eight years ago when Republicans controlled the White House and Democrats controlled Congress.  Shortly after becoming Speaker of the House in 2007, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) traveled to Syria to meet with President Bashar al-Assad against the wishes of President George W. Bush. His administration was trying to isolate the Syrian regime for allegedly aiding Iraqi insurgents in the ongoing Iraq War.

The Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus, appearing on Washington Week, called Pelosi's visit a "deliberate in-your-face gesture" that made the Bush administration "furious."

More from this channel