President Barack Obama’s controversial nuclear deal with Iran received an important boost on Friday from Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who announced he would support the agreement.
The endorsement makes Nadler the only Jewish New Yorker in Congress to approve of the deal, which is being seen as a win for Obama even as other Democratic lawmakers in the Empire State — including Sen. Charles Schumer and Reps. Eliot L. Engel and Steve Israel — have refused to back the accord.
%20%E2%80%9CI%20have%20sought%20to%20ignore%20the%20political%20pressures%2C%20as%20well%20as%20the%20demagoguery%20and%20hateful%20rhetoric%20on%20both%20sides%20…%22′
“I bring to my analysis the full weight of my responsibilities as a member of Congress, and my perspective as an American Jew who is both a Democrat and a strong supporter of Israel,” Nadler said in a statement after receiving a personal letter from Obama addressing some of his concerns. “I have sought to ignore the political pressures, as well as the demagoguery and hateful rhetoric on both sides that I think has been harmful to the overall political discourse.”
Nadler, whose district is believed to have the country’s largest Jewish population, added that while the deal isn’t perfect, rejecting it “would almost certainly result in a far greater likelihood of Iran developing a nuclear bomb in relatively short order.”
RELATED: The Iran deal whip: Where does your senator stand?
The commander-in-chief has been trying to drum up congressional support ahead of a looming vote on the agreement in September. Under the deal, which the U.S. and other world powers hammered out with Iran, the Islamic Republic would curb its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions.
Most Republicans and a handful of Democrats are against the accord. They argue that the deal doesn’t do enough to force Iran to halt its nuclear program, that sanctions relief would allow the regime to increase its funding of anti-Israel terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, and they question whether International Atomic Energy Agency inspections will be effective.
The big question is if there will be enough votes to override a presidential veto. There would have to be at least 13 Democrats in the Senate and 44 Democrats in the House willing to side with Republicans, assuming all of them vote against the deal.









