Democratic lawmaker calls Trump a ‘moron’ for his handling of Iran

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) on Monday denounced President Trump as a “moron” over his handling of issues with Iran, saying that he should have considered the specifics of the Obama-era nuclear deal before withdrawing the U.S. from it. 

Yarmuth made the comments just hours after Trump stated that the United States’s ultimate goal was to never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. 

“Hey moron: the third line of the Iran Nuclear Deal guaranteed just that,” Yarmuth tweeted, accompanying his post with the preamble and general provisions of the agreement.

Hey moron: the third line of the Iran Nuclear Deal guaranteed just that. Maybe you should have read it before you tore it up. https://t.co/rWGJbeKN7N pic.twitter.com/TnRGibAEb2

— Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) June 24, 2019

Tensions between the two countries have continued to escalate since Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal last year. Iran last week downed an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone near the country, prompting concerns from some lawmakers about whether the Trump administration would respond with a military strike. 

{mosads}But Trump said he called off a retaliatory strike after learning it would result in 150 Iranian deaths, which he called a disproportionate response. The president has emphasized in recent days that he is open to negotiating with Iranian leaders. 

Trump on Monday announced additional sanctions against Iran, saying they were a “strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions.” 

The president signed an executive order in the Oval Office that he said would deny Tehran’s supreme leader and other high-ranking officials access to financial instruments. 

“We do not seek conflict with Iran or any other country,” Trump said. “I look forward to discussing whatever I have to discuss with anybody that wants to speak. In the meantime, who knows what’s going to happen. I can only tell you we cannot ever let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump later added that the sanctions would have been imposed even if Iran had not downed one of America’s drones. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also clarified that some of the sanctions were already in the works and that others were imposed following “recent activities.”

The White House has enforced a variety of sanctions on Iran over the last year. Penalties have been imposed on the country’s oil and metals sectors as well as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.