WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Cardin, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday that the Obama administration got "an awful lot" out of its nuclear negotiations with Iran, though the Maryland Democrat said he has not yet decided whether he will support the agreement.
Cardin will be a key a vote on the Iran agreement, and his words are being watched closely. The Maryland Democrat helped negotiate a bipartisan measure that gave Congress authority to review the agreement, and his support would help the Obama administration sell it to skeptical Democrats.
"I have not reached a conclusion. And I would hope that members of the Congress would want to get all the information," Cardin said Thursday. "Our negotiators got an awful lot, particularly on the nuclear front...There were many rumors during these last couple of months of what was going to be in this agreement and how it was going to be weakened...that in fact have been strengthened."
Cardin was speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that drew Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as witnesses. Republican leaders have criticized the deal, even as the Obama administration is working to sell it to the public and on Capitol Hill.
If the GOP-led Congress rejects the deal, the administration would need support from Democrats to sustain a veto. Lawmakers have until Sept. 17 to approve the deal, reject it or do nothing.