Sen. Harry Reid slams Senate Republicans over Iran open letter

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 9 March 2015

On the heels of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's all-but GOP-sanctioned address to Congress last week, in which he torpedoed any potential nuclear deal with Iran, 47 Republican senators released an open letter Monday morning threatening that any such deal could be revoked sooner rather than later. With the partisan rancor over the ongoing negotiations at an all-time high, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) slammed the GOP letter, calling it a "hard slap in the face of not only the United States but our allies."

Reid pulled no punches in condemning what he sees as naked partisanship and "dislike of the president so intense" that Republican leaders are willing to disrupt policymaking. "The judgment of my Republican colleagues seems to be clouded by their abhorrence of President Obama," Reid said. "It's unprecedented for one political party to directly intervene in an international negotiation with the sole goal of embarrassing the president of the United States."