Bush, Walker tangle over Iran deal
While Donald Trump has dominated Republican political news in recent days, two other GOP presidential contenders -- Jeb Bush and Scott Walker -- began mixing it up over the Iran nuclear agreement.
During a weekend town hall in Nevada, Bush challenged Walker's pledge to terminate the Iran on his first day in office.
"That sounds great, but maybe you ought to check in with your allies first," Bush said. "Maybe you ought to appoint a secretary of state, maybe secretary of defense -- you might want to have your team in place before you take an act like that.”
Walker, campaigning in Iowa, responded: “I believe that a president shouldn’t wait to act until they put a Cabinet together or for a certain period of time. I believe that they should be prepared to act on the very first day they take office.”
The Wisconsin governor also raised the prospect of military action.
“It’s very possible -- God forbid that this would happen, but it’s very possible -- that the next president could be called on to take aggressive actions, including military actions, on their very first day in office," Walker said. "And I don’t want a president who is not prepared to act on Day One.”
All the Republicans candidates have criticized the Iran agreement announced by President Obama last week. Under the deal, the U.S. and its allies would reduce economic sanctions on Iran as it gives up the means to make nuclear weapons.
Republicans, including members of Congress, question whether Iran will truly end its drive for nuclear weapons. They also say the elimination of sanctions will provide the Iranian government with money to finance terrorism in the region.
In an interview Tuesday with radio host Mike Gallagher, Bush called on Congress to block the Iran agreement, saying it would send "a clear and compelling signal from the voice of the people or elected officials that this the wrong approach."
How to confront the deal will be a big issue in next year's Republican primaries.
Politico, which described the Iran dispute as "round one" of a "long brawl" between Bush and Walker, reports:
"This particular argument, likely to spill into the first GOP debate next month, splits right down the party’s traditional fault line separating its grass roots and establishment wings and will likely serve to harden the perceptions primary voters already have about the two candidates. ...
'It’s going to be a nonstop slugfest between these two,' said Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist who’s advised presidential campaigns. 'The Iran deal has been universally condemned by the Republican side. It’s just a matter of whose condemnation resonates.'"