WASHINGTON — (CNN) Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton strengthened her support for President Barack Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran on Monday, saying that “all bets are off” if the deal is struck down.
“I’m hoping that the agreement is finally approved and I’m telling you if it’s not, all bets are off,” Clinton told supporters during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
Clinton said that rejecting the deal would be a “very bad signal to send in a quickly moving and oftentimes dangerous world.”
“The Europeans, the Russians, the Chinese, they’re gonna say we agreed with the Americans, I guess their president can’t make foreign policy,” Clinton said.
“That’s a very bad signal to send.”
After the deal was inked by the Obama administration, Clinton has consistently warned that the U.S. jeopardizes its standing among other world powers who worked on the deal — including Europe, Russia and China — if Congress spikes the deal.
“I think this is an important step that puts the lid on Iran’s nuclear programs and it will enable us then to turn our attention as it must to doing what we can with other partners in the region and beyond to try to prevent and contain Iran’s other bad actions,” Clinton said in July.
Since then the former secretary of state who helped implement sanctions against Iran has pledged to defend the deal as president and has cautioned against spiking the agreement.
Monday’s comments come as President Barack Obama ramped up his public lobbying for the deal in a series of interviews given shortly before he left for vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
Meanwhile, one of the Senate’s top Democrats, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, has been out lobbying against the plan, explaining his decision to oppose the plan. The issue has split Congressional Democrats, putting the White House in the position of having to corral lawmakers who otherwise typically support Obama.
And while Clinton’s language on Monday was sharper than normal, the Democratic candidate declined to answer a question from CNN on Schumer’s break with the President.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, has promised that debate will begin on Iran next month, after lawmakers return from their summer break.
The issue is a tricky one for Clinton. Haim Saban and Jack Rosen, two of Clinton’s biggest donors and financial supporters, have come out in opposition to the deal.
Saban, who donated $2 million to Clinton’s super PAC last quarter, told Israel’s Channel 1 that the agreement was a “very bad deal” that needed to be fought.
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