Iran
Floor Speech
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Mr. DeSANTIS. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from New York. I think those are great points. We are going to have some good debates here in the Congress. I don't think that having done this deal--I guess it was the day after April Fools'. We thought it was going to be April Fools', and now this being the first night back, we are just beginning.
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Mr. DeSANTIS. I thank my friend from Georgia for that.
Madam Speaker, it is true. This was a very simple request that was asked of the President: Did you talk to the Ayatollah's people? Did you talk to the Iranian negotiators about just recognizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state? So this way, this whole idea of ``death to Israel, death to America'' shows that Iran is serious about having peace, and the President dismissed that out of hand. He said, Look, you are not going to change the nature of a regime by asking them to recognize the right of Israel to exist.
The problem, though, with that explanation is that the whole real underpinning of this deal, I think, rests on the assumption that Iran's regime might change because when you are sunsetting it in 10 or 13 years, if the regime hasn't changed by then, well, guess what? You are at a nuclear Iran at that point. So I think that they assume that there is going to be some change over the next decade. Otherwise, that sunset provision makes even less sense than it does already.
I also just know one more thing. Who is cheering this deal? The head of Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group. This was a group that Iran started funding shortly after the Iranian revolution in 1979. They were responsible for killing over 240 U.S. marines at the marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983, and they have been instrumental in launching attacks against Israel ever since.
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Mr. DeSANTIS. I thank my friend.
I think the gentleman from Pennsylvania did a good job of putting this all into a broader perspective in terms of this administration's approach to the world.
I think, if you look around the world, there are probably two countries that we have better relations with than when this President took office; and I think, almost uniformly, everywhere else, we are worse off.
Cuba, we have much closer relationships now. The President shakes the hand of Raul Castro, a blood-stained hand, a hand that has suppressed thousands and thousands of people, that has killed the sinners, that has caused thousands of people to flee in shark-infested waters to try to reach the shore of Florida; but the President is doing business with him, not helping the Cuban people. You actually see political repression has increased since we have changed policies, but the President seems fine with that.
Then Iran, we talk with Iran a lot more than we ever have. The question is: Is that a good thing? I think the answer is a dance-with-the-devil foreign policy has really never been tried before, and I think the chance of it succeeding is almost zero.
Part of the problem we see with this framework, I think, is that it is symptomatic of a larger failure to properly address the hostile actors throughout the world.
Goodness gracious, we need to look at our allies like Israel, like democracies in Europe, and they need to know that we are going to stand with them. I think we have an approach to the world right now where our allies can't depend on us and our adversaries don't really fear us. I think that is a bad approach, and I think, unfortunately, it is an approach that is going to invite more danger rather than keep us out of trouble.
I appreciate all my friends who came and made great comments. The President said recently that the criticism of this deal needs to stop.
Mr. President, we are not going to stop. We are going to be here; we are going to make the case on behalf of the American people, and we are going to be urging the Congress to speak loudly and clearly on behalf of American security.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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