As leaders from both the United States and Iran continue to hold talks about the possibility of striking a nuclear program deal, one of President Trump’s political enemies is calling for the U.S. to scrap the talks and take a more direct approach to Iran.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is calling on President Trump to “strike and destroy” the nuclear facilities in Iran ahead of a third round of talks later this week.
“Waste that s—t,” the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday.
“You’re never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Fetterman’s comments come as the Trump administration’s two-month timeline to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program nears an end.
President Trump has expressed confidence ahead of a third round of talks to be held later this week, but it’s unclear if the two countries can — or will — find common ground about eliminating Iran’s nuclear program.
Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of a regional war.
The Pennsylvania senator has been one of the most vocal Democratic voices in support of Israel in its war with Hamas and regional enemies.
“And remember, all of these so-called experts were all wrong,” he said.
“You know, they’ve been saying for years and years Hezbollah was the ultimate badass that kept Israel in check, and we can’t move on anything beyond that.”
According to Fetterman, the Iranian proxy group “couldn’t fight for s—t. And Hamas, literally, are just a bunch of tunnel rats with junkie rockets in the back of a Toyota truck. And now the Houthis have been effectively neutered as well. So what’s left? You have Iran, and they have a nuclear facility, and it’s clearly only for weapons.”
It’s unclear if the Trump administration will look to strike a deal with Iran that resembles the Obama-era nuclear agreement that restricted the country’s ability to create a nuclear weapon but kept the infrastructure intact.
Fetterman said that years ago he understood why Trump withdrew from the Obama-era deal, but today, “I can’t understand why Trump would negotiate with this diseased regime.”
“The negotiations should be comprised of 30,000-pound bombs and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces,]” Fetterman said.
Going into the talks, the administration said any deal would require Tehran to dismantle its nuclear program.
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff later suggested a deal could allow Iran to enrich uranium up to a certain level. Then he walked back that walk-back, saying Iran must agree to “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment” to ink a deal.
A deal that allows Iran to enrich uranium would resemble former president Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which President Trump pulled out of during his first term, describing the deal as “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
The punishing sanctions imposed by the first Trump administration brought Iran to the brink of bankruptcy, and Trump announced a return to his “maximum pressure” campaign when he returned to office this year.
Fetterman called the negotiating team “unimpressive and utterly bewildering.”
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vocally defended the outreach, arguing that “the Iranians have shown a willingness to talk. We’re going to talk to them. If there is a chance of peace, we’re going to give peace and a peaceful resolution to this challenge every opportunity to succeed.”
Israel has also been lobbying Trump to partner on a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the New York Times reported last week.