Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine blames President Trump for withdrawing from President Obama’s nuclear deal during his first term, and starting a war with Iran, during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
Kaine is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee.
“As you know, Iran entered into an agreement with the United States and other nations, both allies of the U.S. and China and Russia in 2016, reaffirming that they would never purchase, seek, or acquire a nuclear weapon,” Kaine said. Donald Trump tore that up.”
“So, J.D. Vance says now that Iran won’t agree to what they agreed to 10 years ago. I’m sure Iran wonders if we agree to it, will the United States tear it up again and bomb our civilian infrastructure and kill school children, and engage in an assassination campaign against our leadership,” he said. “This is not going to be an easy negotiation because the last negotiation that led to a control of Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. made the decision to tear it up and walk away from the deal.”
“I think that decision by President Trump to tear up a diplomatic deal will go down in history as one of the worst decisions in the foreign policy space ever made by an American president. If you make diplomacy impossible, you tend to make war inevitable,” he said.
SEN. TIM KAINE: Well, Martha, we need to extend the ceasefire. We — we shouldn’t be in this war to begin with.
You know, what people need to realize is we had a diplomatic control over Iran not seeking a nuclear weapon that Donald Trump decided to tear up.
And we had an open Strait of Hormuz and reasonable gas prices up until February 27th, when Donald Trump launched this war without the support of allies, the American public, or Congress.
And so, the ceasefire, while it is not perfectly holding, we need to find a way to extend it past April 21st. Both parties, when they left the negotiation in Pakistan, said the door wasn’t closed to additional negotiation. And so, even an imperfect ceasefire is better than resuming full war.
I’m going to force a vote on another war powers resolution in Congress this week in the Senate because returning to full war will just compound the suffering of American troops and the American citizenry, who are suffering under a very, very devastated economy because of what Donald Trump has done.
RADDATZ: You heard J.D. Vance, however, say it was a final offer. Whether he’s open to talking to them again is something different than saying this is the final offer, we’re welcome for you to come back and accept it or not.
The Iranians have stood firm. They walked away from here as well saying they would like to get closer to the American side. This seems like an absolute red line for President Trump.
KAINE: I’m not sure what President Trump’s red lines are because they seem to change all the time. His rationale for the war has changed all the time. You know, the threat to bomb the entire civilization and 90 minutes before that, okay, we’re not going to bomb the entire civilization. And I don’t know exactly what the offer was that J.D. Vance put on the table.
He had a brief press conference and he said, “We need to make sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” But, Martha, as you know, Iran entered into an agreement with the United States and other nations, both allies of the U.S. and China and Russia in 2016, reaffirming that they would never purchase, seek, or acquire a nuclear weapon.
Donald Trump tore that up. He tore up the restrictions on uranium production. He tore up the restrictions on centrifuge production. And he tore up the deal that allowed intrusive inspections in Iran.
So, J.D. Vance says now that Iran won’t agree to what they agreed to 10 years ago. I’m sure Iran wonders if we agree to it, will the United States tear it up again and bomb our civilian infrastructure and kill school children, and engage in an assassination campaign against our leadership.
This is not going to be an easy negotiation because the last negotiation that led to a control of Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. made the decision to tear it up and walk away from the deal.
I think that decision by President Trump to tear up a diplomatic deal will go down in history as one of the worst decisions in the foreign policy space ever made by an American president. If you make diplomacy impossible, you tend to make war inevitable.
RADDATZ: And the war itself, one of the things you just heard Senator Johnson talk about is what he said. Now, whether you know they tore up that or not, he said now they are — Iran — an existential threat. Do you — do not believe it’s an existential threat or there was an imminent threat?
KAINE: There was no imminent threat. They are a regional threat. The regime is bad actors for sure. The tragedy is the U.S. and Iran were friends in World War II. We were allies until the U.S. toppled the Iranian government in 1953. And since then, it’s been back and forth between the U.S. and Iran for not — not 47 years, but for 80 years. And if war was the answer, we would have found it before now.
They are a regional threat, but they pose no imminent threat to the United States. I’m on both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees. I’m in the classified facility at the — at the Capitol all the time. And there was zero evidence of an imminent threat to the homeland from Iran.
There was suggestion that if Israel attacked Iran, Iran might then turn its attention to U.S. forces in the region, our 40,000 permanent forces that we have. We could have — we should have talked Israel out of attacking so as to minimize risk to our own forces. Instead, we accepted the notion that Israel would attack. But there was no imminent threat to the United States from Iran from a nuclear program, for their ballistic missile program, or for their other military activities.
That doesn’t mean that they’re a good guy. They’re a regional threat, but they weren’t a threat to the U.S. homeland.
RADDATZ: Senator, if we could just close on this: Trump has continued to blast NATO allies who are not supporting opening up this Strait of Hormuz. A president can’t pull out of NATO, of course, but he could pull troops out. Are you concerned about that?
KAINE: Yes. I mean, the president has been trashing NATO for years, long before he was president. And in this term, the tariffs that he has imposed on our allies, the language that he uses — calling Canada, a NATO ally of 51st state, threatening the attack of Greenland, a part of Denmark, another NATO ally. He’s really hurt NATO.
And then he starts a war without consulting with them that has a huge effect on NATO allies’ economy, and then gets mad that they won’t join in. I mean, it’s like you don’t — you don’t sucker punch somebody in a bar and then blame your buddies when they don’t join the fight with you.
I mean, the pre — if the president wanted the support of allies, he should have valued allies and respected them rather than putting tariffs on their economies and trash-talking them.
