Joe Lieberman: President Trump Can Walk Away From The Iran Deal Any Time He Wants As Commander In Chief But I Don’t Think He Will

Chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran, Former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman spoke with Brian Kilmeade about reports President Trump is ready to decertify the Iran nuclear and why he is not worried about the President’s strong language toward North Korea.

Listen here for the full interview:

Joe Lieberman on what President Trump’s America First motto means for our foreign policy

(LIEBERMAN) On foreign policy although the President talked says America first but honestly he doesn’t mean pull out of the rest of the world because he knows that there are enemies we have in the world that threaten our security so we’re on the verge of what I think will be a major and I think positive announcement by the President about the Iran nuclear agreement if he decertifies it and begins the process of renegotiating or pulling out of it if the Iranians don’t get with the program and you know he continued to work with NATO even a one point people were saying this is the end of our alliances with people in Europe and Asia same with the Asians very close with the Japanese and the South Koreans and trying to deal with North Korea so yeah overall I think in foreign policy has been and I mean this positively, less change in one sense we’re still a greater international power under President Trump and good change in another sense in that were getting tough with our enemies which we have to or they’re going to strike us.

Joe Lieberman on if President Trump will walk away from the Iran nuclear deal and how Iran is not living up to the agreement

(KILMEADE) Joe Lieberman, you are chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran. I don’t have the access to the intelligence but the word is they have done nothing to blatantly violate the agreement that sadly Secretary of State Kerry worked out and President Obama backed and the senate even though they only had forty plus votes did not decertify they did green light so being that they have not blatantly violated it they got the money up front and the sanctions relief already is it wise to walk away?

(LIEBERMAN) I don’t think the president is going to first off, United Against Nuclear Iran , you could tell by our name that’s the whole purpose of the organization formed about nine years ago by a nonpartisan group of American diplomats and we worked to enforce sanctions to add sanctions on our own because we think that it remains the greatest single threat to world security and American security we also campaigned against the Iran nuclear agreement because we thought it was a terrible agreement unfortunately went into effect so big changes now with President Trump coming in. We went from an administration that bent over backward to defend the agreement to an administration as calling it or it is which is a bad deal for the united states so but I think this a misconception here which is that the Iranians have followed the agreement a hundred percent they followed two parts of it for the most part which is the limit the number of centrifuges they have spinning in the amount of so called heavy water that they produce which you used to make nuclear weapons but even on those two they had violations along the way the second is they’re not letting the international atomic energy inspectors get into their military sites which I think is required by the Iran nuclear agreement and of course where would they be concealing as they usually do violations of the agreement it would be on their military sites so they also build ballistic missiles which is contrary to what they’re supposed to do under the United Nation Security Council agreement that went along with the Iran nuclear agreement and look significantly of all president Obama had a dream here that this nuclear agreement would not only slow their nuclear program it would change Iran it would stop it for being the state sponsor of terrorism it would stop it from supporting the aggression throughout the middle east it would stop it from repressing the human rights of its own people and it has done none of that and that’s why I think a matter of fact I think Iran has been worse and so great was signed on all those counts so I think President Trump has a real basis for saying under American law the this agreement is no longer in our national security interest. He can walk away from it any time he wants in my opinion as commander in chief but I don’t think he will, I think he will still try to work with our allies in Europe and congress to pressure the Iranians to see if they will renegotiate.

Senator Lieberman on Condoleezza Rice saying even if the Iran nuclear deal is decertified she hopes the agreement stays in place while it is being renegotiated

(LIEBERMAN) So Let’s assume as everybody does and I do that the President is going to say this deal is not in our national security interests he’s going to decertify it. In my opinion at any point the President decides he can pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement. Remember it’s not really a treaty it’s not really even an executive agreement it was simultaneous diplomatic promises made by Iran and us and the other countries that were part of it. the president as commander in chief could pull out that at any time he thinks is not in the interests of the U.S. We don’t like to break agreements that previous administrations and are in too but one that is not even an agreement really in other words is not a contract that we sign he can do that so look I think the president would have a basis in fact that we just discussed to withdraw from the agreement right now. My guess is he won’t but that’s okay with me because it will give some time kind of a sword over the head of the Iranian that he’s ready to pull out of the agreement. They’re going to get whacked with the worst the economic sanctions. Again it’s up to them and what do we want, we want them not just to pause their nuclear program we want them to end it forever and we want things like giving us access to their military sites so we know that they’re not that cheating on the agreement which they’ve done on almost every agreement they’ve signed before.

Joe Lieberman on President Trump’s language toward Kim Jong-un & North Korea

(LIEBERMAN) People ask me aren’t you upset about the very strong language president Trump using toward Kim Jong-un and the North Korean actions so I said you know it is very strong and it’s very unusual very personal but I got to tell you I’m not upset about it because we have tried everything else with Kim Jong-un and his father and his grandfather. During the 90’s I was in the senate during the Clinton Administrations good faith negotiations along with others with the North Koreans we gave them I forgot how many billions of dollars they stopped their nuclear development program for a while. They essentially took the money and ran and when they took after a few years of taking the money they started their nuclear program again and you know shame on us if we get into that kind of deal again so we have to put some fear into Kim Jong-un on which I think the President is doing and frankly have to put some fear into the Chinese that the President may take precipitous military action, take strong military action against North Korea. We don’t want to do it but they don’t want it either and I think you know this is the old saying that sometimes the best way to achieve peace is to prepare for war and this may be one of those occasions.

Joe Lieberman’s message to Senator Lindsey Graham

(KILMEADE) Any message I should bring to Lindsey Graham?

(LIEBERMAN) Tell him, the three amigos forever. I am really proud of him. He and John McCain and I formed a friendship mostly around foreign policy defense, we traveled a lot to meet our troops etcetera. He is a real leader, I am very proud of him so give him my best.