MSNBC, "The Ed Show" - Transcript: The Iran Nuclear Deal

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SCHULTZ: No doubt, Israel, a big concern to the United States.

Joining me now is Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington and MSNBC
Contributor Steve Clemons, Editor-at-Large for The Atlantic, gentlemen,
great to have you with us.

Congressman, you fist. What is this -- what message does this sent today
to the advocates of more sanctions? Were they wrong? Have we gone far
enough to say that sanctions have done what they were suppose to do and we
don`t have to go any further?

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, (D) WASHINGTON: My belief is the President as he
handled this brilliantly. He held back the people who wanted to throw a
monkey wrench into the negotiations and he has accomplished what he set out
to do bring a comprehensive agreement to the American people.

That doesn`t mean for one second that those who want to throw monkey wrench
in this plans won`t try to or won`t do it in the future.

But they do it at their own risk because the question you have to ask them
is, what is your alternative? You just kind of keep squeezing and hope
you`ll get, I don`t know, you think Iran will go away or that their nuclear
plant will go away.

The President has put a plan on the table that controls it for 15 years.
It`s a fabulous piece of work and I know there are details. The devil is
always in the details and you want to see the agreement? But what he`s got
on the table is a skeleton agreement that really makes an awful lot of
sense.

SCHULTZ: Steve, Israel`s Strategic Affairs Minister released a statement
following the deals announcement today saying that the smiles (ph) of
Switzerland are detached from wretched reality in which Iran refuses to
make any concessions on their nuclear issue and continues to threaten
Israel and all other countries in the Middle East.

Pessimism galore it seems like. Will the President be able to sell this
deal to the Prime Minister? Is there any way Israel will move at all on
this?

STEVE CLEMONS, THE ATLANTIC: I think so. I think President Obama will do
exactly what Bibi Netanyahu did when he was appealing to American citizens.
Barack Obama will paint a very clear and lucid picture of the options ahead
and how reducing Iran`s nuclear fuel by 97 percent getting into previously
unreachable parts of Iran`s nuclear program, getting Iran to agree to a
substantial two-thirds reduction in it centrifuges and locking it in place
into first generation centrifuges which frankly are pretty crappy.

So when you take all of that to the Israeli citizenry, I think you`ll see
that Tehran and Israel changed because you just can`t have kind of New
Orleans levee strategy for Israeli security hoping a big storm won`t come.
You`ve got to actually do things that fundamentally change the dynamic in
the Middle East.

And President Obama has done a masterful (ph) job, I agree with Congressman
McDermott in moving that needle. It`s an extraordinary difficult needle
but he is moving it and it`s breathtaking to watch.

SCHULTZ: The President also had a message for the Iranian people today in
a statement. Here it is.

( VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Congressman, it sounds like the table has been set for this deal
if it goes through -- to put a pressure on the Iranian people to make sure
that the country follows through with this. Because they`ve struggled with
these economic sanctions, they want a prosper in their society, in their
country and I just got a feeling today listening to the President that he -
- that was a big (inaudible) fringe to the Iranian people but also a
challenge to them to make sure that it goes through. How did you read it?

MCDERMOTT: Well, I thought, it was a very conciliatory statement by the
President, a very nice statement. And he is really acknowledging that the
-- you remember the last President of Iran (Inaudible) or (Johnny) or
whatever his name was who let Iran yelling all kinds of scary things.

That man that`s now the President and the Foreign Minister are very
reasonable people, they both studied in the United States. They know us as
human beings. And when I talked to their staff a longtime ago, they said
if we can get a situation where we have a win-win, where we, the Iranians
win and were the rest of the world wins, we all have an agreement. And I
think you heard the Foreign Minister today say that that`s where he thought
they were.

They had a win-win situation. I think the Iranian people will back them in
the political process. I think you have got something going here that`s
really very exciting.

SCHULTZ: What`s your take on that, Steve?

CLEMONS: Well, I think it`s interesting on just on the White House call
with senior administration officials. You know, one of the interesting
comments was that that Iran is not a democracy like ours but they have
politics. And their politics plays just like our politics plays and you
got to deal with that dimensionality over there.

And Barack Obama is giving a tilt to reformats, to the people that have
aspirations for Iran of saying to them, your lives can be better,
everything can be better. Hold your leaders accountable, make them move
forward on this.

And so, I thought it was a very...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

CLEMONS: ... nice move like Congressman McDermott said, very important to
talk directly to Iran`s people.

SCHULTZ: Well, Steve, nothings ever peaches and cream, where is the rotten
apple in this deal if there is one? I mean...

CLEMONS: I think...

SCHULTZ: What`s the -- where`s the fly in the ointment here?

CLEMONS: Well, I think that right now, there still opportunity in the next
couple of months to bash this all up. There can be different
interpretations on each side of how the -- what is considered to be
appropriate behavior by Iran in getting these sanctions relief.

There could be a huge difference of opinion on what reducing Iran`s nuclear
fuel means where it goes, how it`s managed and so there`s plenty of
opportunity left for the naysayers (ph) to do this.

But when I -- I hadn`t seen the texts that disagreeing that we`ve been
talking about the outlines for some time.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: But I think that the several...

MCDERMOTT: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

CLEMONS: ... notches better than I expected it would be.

MCDERMOTT: Ed, the real...

SCHULTZ: You know, they`re talking like that. What do you think, Jim?

MCDERMOTT: Well, the real bumped in the road here is that the other side
has tried for six years to prevent the President from having any success
rather it`s with the Affordable Care Act or anything else and here comes an
international agreement which in my opinion is bigger and has more impact
for Americans than does the Affordable Care Act.

This is a huge agreement if it goes through and I don`t how the Republicans
are going to squelch (ph) and say we support him. I mean, that`s going to
be their tough thing, is to figure out how can they either find someway to
tear it down or come to the President and say, you know, you`ve done a good
job. Thank you.

I know -- that`s where the real rough (ph) is going to be.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. And then probably sends somebody out there he`s got
nothing to lose like John McCain and Lindsey Graham. So those guys are
probably on the way.

Congressman Jim McDermott, Steve Clemons, good to have you with us tonight.

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