WASHINGTON — (CNN) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy claimed Thursday that Republicans still have a strong possibility of getting enough votes to override a presidential veto of a bill rejecting the Iran nuclear deal.
Speaking at a news conference during an annual congressional trip to Israel, he said there’s “very [much] a possibility” that there could be enough votes for the override, which the administration has said would sink the deal.
He also said that the White House’s relying on the support of just over one-third of Congress — the number needed to sustain a veto — for a major diplomatic agreement is too little.
McCarthy noted that Obama did not designate the deal a treaty, which would have required a much higher level of Senate support to be ratified. “Now he’s playing to hold one-third. If you try to make an agreement where only the minority of your country is going to support [it], that majority is going to have a voice one day.”
He predicted that the deal would “play very large” in the presidential race.
Nearly all the Republicans are expected to vote against the deal, so President Barack Obama’s chances for sustaining a veto hinge on keeping 13 Senate and 44 House Democrats from rejecting the agreement.
So far the White House has been confident it can retain the necessary Democratic support.
The deal picked up another key backer on Thursday morning, when Al Franken became another Senate Democrat, and Jewish lawmaker, to voice his support for the deal. In a CNN op-ed, the Minnesota Democrat said he weighed the decision heavily, discussing the issue with a number of representatives from both sides.
“It isn’t a perfect agreement,” Franken wrote. “But it is a strong one. This agreement is, in my opinion, the most effective, realistic way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon anytime in the next 15 years.”
Late Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he is supportive of the deal. Obama’s first chief of staff is an influential Jewish politician nationally.
“I would say to you this agreement is a good agreement and it is far superior to either sustained bombing that would never actually get you what you have today or sanctions that would exist on paper but with no international support,” Emanuel told The Huffington Post.
Franken becomes one of 18 Democratic and left-leaning independents senators who have said they will back the deal.
So far, the GOP only has one solid Iran detractor in the Senate in New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday evening that he is still undecided. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he will make his decision when he’s “ready,” but first wants to talk through the debate with several friends he feels he “owes” it to.
“I just have to work through some of my personal issues, because when it all boils down to it, it’s a question of conviction. It’s not a political calculus for me anymore,” Reid said. “It’s an extremely difficult issue. … I’m going to try to talk everyone I can.”
Another key Senate Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicated to The Washington Post that he would wait until after Labor Day to declare a position.
On the other side of the Hill, Obama lost a Democrat on Thursday when Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings announced he would vote against the deal. In a statement, he detailed a number of concerns with the deal, including relieving sanctions on the Iranian government.
“We must maintain a strong sanctions regime — to do otherwise is to give up our leverage,” Hastings said. “Sanctions are what brought Iran to the table, and they depend on large-scale international cooperation and compliance.”
Hastings makes 11 House Democrats who say they’ll vote against the deal, but Obama still seems to have strong support among 146 voting Democratic lawmakers who signed onto a letter in the spring supporting negotiations.
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