Manchin "leaning strongly" toward approving Iran deal
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, said he is "leaning very strongly" toward voting to approve the nuclear deal with Iran, he said in an interview Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Democratic support will be critical for the nuclear agreement to survive a vote in Congress. If Republicans reject the deal - and block the president from waiving some U.S. sanctions against Iran - Mr. Obama will veto it, and at that point, GOP leaders would attempt to override the veto. It will fall to Democrats to ensure the president's veto holds.
Manchin said Sunday that he's leaning toward a "yes" vote "because of the options that I have."
"The only other option is go to war, and I'm not ready to send our people into harms way again until people in that part of the world want to clean up their own mess," he said. Manchin said he believes that military action is a viable option because "we've proved that we can drop a bomb anyplace, anytime, anywhere," but he wants to prevent the U.S. from getting bogged down in another Middle East conflict.
As part of his decision-making process, Manchin said he has spoken to the representatives of four out of the five allies who were U.S. partners in the negotiations with Iran.
"They all believe that this is a pathway that they should be taking. It's one they support," Manchin said. "If we pull out we pull out by ourselves."
Later in the interview he said, "we cannot go it alone."