A sub-theme, given this took place in New York, was that U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has the ability to kill this deal, and kill it he must. There were animated chants of “Where’s Chuck?” and “Kill this deal.”
The crowd also was diverse: it spanned age, color and religions.
Media mogul Mort Zuckerman was the first speaker at the rally. He is a former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Zuckerman set the tone by explaining that Iran’s position is that even if sanctions are lifted and even if Iran gets all that it wanted out of the deal, the Ayatollah Khameini has unequivocally stated that they will not refrain from their positions such as “death to American” and death to the Zionist state.”
Zuckerman said the world is on the threshold of a vast transfer of international power away from the United States and its allies and towards the imperial, subversive Iranian nation.
Both John Batchelor and Monica Crowley called on the crowd to besiege Congress with demands to stop this terrible [Iran] deal. “A deal that will give that regime the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.” Crowley, in particular, went after President Obama, telling the crowd that “the President said he can do whatever he wants because he has a pen and a telephone.” Crowley retorted, “Guess what? We have pens and phones too!”
Rally co-organizers Richard Allen (L) and Jeff Wiesenfeld led the crowds in chanting, “Where’s Chuck?” and “Kill this deal!”
Cong. Trent Franks told the crowd that the deal with Iran is “far worse than [former President Bill] Clinton’s deal with North Korea.” If the deal is approved and implemented, Franks said, “Obama will be remembered as the father of the Iranian nuclear bomb.”
George Pataki said opposition to the Iran deal must be bipartisan and all Americans must be united in opposing it, Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Pataki went through the litany of goodies Iran gets out of the deal: the ability to retain its centrifuges, the $150 billion in sanctions relief, its ability to defy inspections, amongst others. “What does America get?” Pataki asked. “We don’t even get our hostages back.”
