Subject: POLITICO Huddle: Schumer to oppose Iran deal — GOP investigations into Hillary Clinton could run up to Election Day 2016
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2015 06:29:50 -0600

By John Bresnahan (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  & @brespolitico.com)

Lauren French is out today doing whatever, so you&#39;re stuck with me. Get over it.

The GOP presidential debate in Cleveland gets (nearly) all the headlines today and was pure awesome, if for nothing else than Donald Trump yelling 'Trump, Trump, Trump!' However, there was some serious congressional news yesterday as well.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), the number three Senate Democrat and presumptive Democratic leader following Minority Leader Harry Reid&#39;s (D-Nev.) retirement, came out against President Barack Obama&#39;s nuclear deal with Iran. This is big, although not a shocker and probably NOT a game changer. Schumer always faced a difficult choice on Iran and had been wrestling with this issue for months. Been pretty clear to some on the Hill that Schumer was 'looking for a way to get to no,' joked one Senate insider.

Here&#39;s Schumer&#39;s statement, which was first released on Medium:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc6e66423631805a5933fa4369840990b9252aa296e87d5a26e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc6e66423631805a5933fa4369840990b9252aa296e87d5a26e 

Schumer&#39;s decision came as Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.), ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, came out against the deal while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said she was in favor of the agreement. Engel&#39;s announcement was about as surprising as the sun rising in the East & setting in the West. So despite Gillibrand&#39;s statement, Thursday was overall a bad day for Obama on Iran.

As we came to press, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) announced her support for Iran deal.

Some points on Schumer & Iran:

1) Schumer&#39;s position leaked during then GOP debate. A source close to Schumer said he was going to go public Friday and told the White House last night. Word then leaked to the Huffington Post, which broke the story. Made for some unintentionally bad optics for Schumer.

2) Schumer&#39;s statement may end up more damaging than his 'no' vote. It&#39;s long and detailed and goes into great depth on why he opposes the agreement. It&#39;s a roadmap for opponents to the deal; you&#39;ll be seeing a lot of Schumer quotes being used in coming weeks by the opposition.White House spokesman Josh Earnest is likely to face numerous Schumer-related questions today.

3) Reid and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the number four Senate Democrat, are likely to join Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in supporting Obama on the Iran deal - although they have not said this publicly - so Schumer&#39;s vote doesn&#39;t crush the White House. It does look pretty bad, though.

4) Schumer will whip for more 'no' votes but he downplays the potential impact of his whipping: 'There are some who believe that I can force my colleagues to vote my way. While I will certainly share my view and try to persuade them that the vote to disapprove is the right one, in my experience with matters of conscience and great consequence like this, each member ultimately comes to their own conclusion.'

5) Several former Obama White House aides came out to trash Schumer on Twitter after word of his opposition to the Iran deal leaked. Some even suggested that Dems should find someone else to be their next Senate leader. That ain&#39;t gonna happen, and it&#39;s unclear how that helped the president&#39;s case.

5) Democrats still look like they can uphold an expected Obama veto of a 'resolution of disapproval' next month, but the White House has to feel better about its position in the House than Senate thanks to Schumer.

6) Schumer did not say how he would vote on a veto override. I&#39;d think he&#39;s a 'yes' on override - meaning he will support an override of an Obama veto -but we&#39;ll see.

7) The Senate Democratic votes to watch now are Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), who is ranking on the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Chris Coons (Del.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Gary Peters (Mich.) and Cory Booker (N.J.). 

Also on Iran - the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on IAEA (International Atomic Enegy Agency) side deals with Iran. Corker, who is strongly opposed to the P5+1 agreement on Iran, said Obama is 'trying to shut down debate' on the issue. Per the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

'Corker, who is chairman of the committee, expressed disappointment in remarks Obama made Wednesday in which he compared members of Congress who have not yet expressed support for the deal to Iranian hardliners who chant &#39;Death to America.&#39;

Corker also said the administration may be refusing to obtain and share documents that outline the [IAEA] role in implementing the nuclear agreement because the side deals would not &#39;stand the test of late night comedy.&#39;

The IAEA has said those documents may not be released under confidentiality pledges.' 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc65f1c3970a5ea51a3c381bb07fc429a10bf15028fe2e09a95 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc65f1c3970a5ea51a3c381bb07fc429a10bf15028fe2e09a95 

In other big Congress news: Hillary Clinton may face GOP congressional probes until Election Day 2016 - assuming she&#39;s the Democratic presidential nominee - on issues beyond Benghazi. Rachel Bade has the scoop:

'In a series of moves that could keep Hillary Clinton answering questions until Election Day, Republican committee chairmen in the House and Senate are considering launching new probes into Hillary Clinton's tenure at the State Department, according to multiple GOP lawmakers and aides.

The committee leaders - who have so far let the House Select Committee on Benghazi take the lead investigating Clinton's response to the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya - are now eyeing their own spin-off probes into the Democratic front-runner for president and her aides.' 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc67c6f3d66de6c068808bd95dfc8b2a76584a272b39a87e13c 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc67c6f3d66de6c068808bd95dfc8b2a76584a272b39a87e13c 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a 'wide-ranging' press conference with Hill reporters on Thursday the day after the Senate adjourned until early Sept. The biggest news was McConnell rejected the idea of a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding. Our own Seung Min Kim has the details: '&#39;We've been down this path before," he said. "This is a tactic that's been tried going back to the '90s, frequently by Republican majorities that always have the same ending: that the focus is on the fact that the government is shut down, not on what the underlying issue that is being protested is."

This issue was raised repeatedly during Thursday&#39;s GOP debate, including by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz bashed House & Senate GOP leaders during the debate, and said once again that McConnell 'lied' to him during a session with reporters following the debate. So everything is apparently going very well between Cruz and McConnell! 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc67bd42fa7623d28cb6d853dc0e6ad3b93e4515d6ccffeea09 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc67bd42fa7623d28cb6d853dc0e6ad3b93e4515d6ccffeea09 

Sen. Tim Kaine bashes Congress for refusing to debate the 'illegal war' against ISIS:

'As the United States nears the 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc6effecadf5d5f7386f41a64105747b9ee829eef2de48e1ee4 
one-year anniversary  of its fight against the Islamic State, the military efforts in Syria 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc68c5eac11c77f6b61ac1f3308658e82fee49de216d973298b 
appear to be ramping up  -- much to the dismay of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).

Kaine joined HuffPost Live on Thursday and sounded off on the increasing military operations against the extremist group. While the senator said he is 'supportive of U.S. military action against ISIL,' he urged Congress to weigh in on the matter.' 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc63238a3bfbaaa3e2d269c5636cb4499de855da5ab8e5416e5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc63238a3bfbaaa3e2d269c5636cb4499de855da5ab8e5416e5 

And a lobbyist indicted in the criminal corruption case that has engulfed Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah (Pa.) appeared in court yesterday, per philly.com: 'A week after he was charged in an 85-page indictment with U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and three others, Herbert Vederman, a lobbyist and former deputy mayor, appeared in court yesterday before a federal magistrate.

A short, thin man with white hair, dressed in a dark suit and wearing glasses, Vederman, 69, did not speak during his brief appearance before Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter.

Upon agreement by prosecutor Eric Gibson, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Vederman&#39;s attorney, Catherine Recker, Vederman, who has not been in custody, was released on a $100,000 personal-recognizance bond.' 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc6fa08b6aadd29c576769eadec1af4a61d262767db288ca197 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=832b15cb3b157cc6fa08b6aadd29c576769eadec1af4a61d262767db288ca197 

Ok, onto today&#39;s trivia question (which is popular apparently and proves you people are all dorks). From Lauren French: 'As many of you pointed out, yesterday's question was a bit too open-ended. We got a lot of responses that we're true so we're anointing a few winners. Patrick Boland was the first to point out they all had daughters. Claude Marx mentioned that Clinton, Obama and Bush all have graduate degrees from Ivy League schools and then many of you pointed out the obvious, male Americans twice elected president. For the record, the answer that was included with the question is that they all once lost a race to serve in the House.'

So here&#39;s today&#39;s exciting trivia question (also from Lauren French): President James Monroe caused a slight scandal when he lived in the White House. Congress had earmarked money for the first family to buy furniture but Monroe spent at least a portion of those funds one something else. What two items did he buy? First person to email me with the correct answer wins. Yeah, sure, whatever.

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