GOP tries to link Dem candidates to Obama on Iran ‘ransom’

Republican incumbents are racing to link their Democratic opponents to the Obama administration’s $400 million cash payment to Iran, hoping to use it as an effective campaign issue.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Friday blasted Democratic opponent Katie McGinty for supporting Obama’s Iran policies, saying Tehran considers the payment and the separate Iran nuclear deal to be connected.

{mosads}“Despite all of this, Katie McGinty remains fully on board with the deal, fully in support of the president’s fully misguided policy,” he told reporters. “She owes it to Pennsylvanians to put Pennsylvanians’ safety over her allegiance to the liberal wing of her party.”

McGinty supports the Iran agreement, which lifts sanctions on the country as it curbs its nuclear program, but has not weighed in on the cash payment.

The $400 million payment, made in January, was the first part of a $1.7 billion settlement to resolve a dispute surrounding a decades-old arms deal. But opponents of the global nuclear deal have seized on the fact that it was made in cash and coincided with the release of four American hostages, arguing it was a ransom payment.

In response to Obama’s insistence that it was not ransom, Toomey said: “You can call it whatever you want, but when someone gives money in return for releasing hostages, I think that’s pretty close to a dictionary definition of a ransom payment.”

Toomey isn’t alone in linking his opponent to the cash payment. Republicans have also targeted Democrats running for Senate in New Hampshire, Missouri, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona and Florida — all states where a GOP incumbent is facing reelection this fall — as well as Nevada, which has an open seat.

Amelia Chassé, a spokeswoman for America Rising PAC, said Democratic candidates who backed the Iran nuclear agreement should have to weigh in on the payment.

“The Administration’s secret cash delivery to Iran would seem like an almost laughable plot from one of the less realistic James Bond films if the consequences weren’t so serious for our national security,” she said in a statement.

Republicans have focused on national security as a top issue in the 2016 elections as they defend 24 Senate seats, including a handful in states previously carried by President Obama.

Though a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday shows Obama receiving the highest approval rating of his second term, less than 45 percent of Americans approve of his foreign policy, according to RealClearPolitics.

But that’s an uptick from late last year, when approval of Obama’s handling of foreign policy frequently polled in the mid-30s.

Democrats were quick to hit back, noting that GOP senators are supporting Donald Trump, whose foreign policy comments have drawn backlash from members of his own party.

“Pat Toomey wants Donald Trump to be the commander in chief. Seriously. He wants Donald Trump, yes, that Donald Trump, to be our commander in chief,” said Sean Coit, a spokesman for McGinty’s campaign.

“So the idea that Pat Toomey’s going to lecture anyone about national security and foreign policy is a joke.”

Toomey on Friday said he’s still undecided on whether he will ultimately support Trump.

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) separately said they do not believe Trump understands the nuclear deal.

“[Diplomats] express pretty openly their concerns about Donald Trump and the fact that he doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on internationally,” Cardin said. “We know that he is damaging our national security.”