NBC News "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Iran Nuclear Agreement and Sanctions Relief

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

Fair enough. Thank you, sir. I'm joined now by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who's been supportive of efforts to reach a deal with Iran. Senator, welcome back to Meet the Press. And let me ask you this. You heard Prime Minister Netanyahu, obviously he wants to see a better deal. Do you believe the United States should be negotiating for a better deal?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

Well, I think we have a pretty remarkable deal on the table today. If you'll look at what our parameters were at the outset for a negotiated agreement, you can see the outlines of them right now. We've increased breakout time to a year, we've significantly rolled back their enrichment capability, we're dismantling the potential plutonium path at Arak, and we have an inspections regime that is absolutely unprecedented, that is going to allow us to find a covert program if it exists outside of the known research facilities.

The idea that we should just go back to the negotiating table and put back sanctions into place, I think doesn't understand the reality, which is that with this deal on the table, it would've been hard to get our partners, especially Russia and China, to go back to sanctions when most of our objectives had been met at the negotiating table.

It's easy to say that we should just continue to negotiate and effectively sanction Iran into submission. I don't think that that's the deal that the rest of our negotiating partners signed up for. And that's the reality that we have to deal with.

CHUCK TODD:

But Senator, what about the prime minister's point, and frankly the point of others, we're not asking Iran to stop supporting terrorism, we're not asking Iran to change its behavior, we're about to hand them more resources and they've been doing nothing arguably but expanding their sphere of influence in the Middle East. Now you're giving them more money to do that by lifting the sanctions. And we didn't ask for a behavior change on anything other than nuclear inspections. Did we just ask for too little?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

Well, it's true, this deal doesn't turn Iran from a bad guy into a good guy. But it's a little bit of rewriting of history to suggest that these negotiations were about all of the other nefarious activities of Iran in the region. These negotiations were about ending their nuclear program such that we can start to lift up the moderate elements within Iran, the internationalists who want them to be sitting as a member of the world community so that we can talk about all of these other issues.

And it's also important to point out that we have a host of other sanctions that are in place, trying to change their behavior on their ballistic missile program, on their human rights violations, and on their support for terrorism. Those sanctions don't go away, they stay in place. And Congress and the president reserves the right to increase those sanctions if they continue to undermine stability in the Middle East, notwithstanding the progress we're making on their nuclear program.

CHUCK TODD:

So you support, let me get this straight, you support potentially increasing sanctions if you connect it to their support, say, of the Houthis in Yemen, but pulling back some sanctions that are connected in the nuclear program?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

So we have sanctions in place that don't go away, that are connected to these other activities. And I think Congress always reserves the right other change our policy vis-à-vis Iran if they continue to act in the way that they are in the rest of the region. So absolutely, we reserve our right to continue to try to use whatever leverage that we have at our disposal to try to make them a less of an evil within that region.

CHUCK TODD:

Okay, but do you want as a compromise to get Congress to potentially accept this nuclear deal, would you be willing to increase sanctions in other spots in Iran, to pull back in other places, as part of the agreement, not to undermine the president's ability to negotiate this agreement?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

Well, I don't know that we need to talk about that right now. I think we should get through these nuclear negotiations. And I think this will give us an opportunity potentially to talk to the Iranians, either directly, or through intermediaries, about solutions to other problems in the region.

You take this issue off of the table, you empower people like Rouhani and Zarif, who may want a different path for Iran, less as an irritant, more as a member of the global community, and you may see a pathway to solving some of these other problems. And you can do it potentially without new rounds of additional sanctions.

CHUCK TODD:

Quickly on another topic, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Menendez, was indicted on corruption charges. He has stepped down as ranking member. But The New York Times, somewhat of a home newspaper for yourself in Connecticut there, has called for Senator Menendez to resign from the Senate completely. Do you think Senator Menendez ought to consider a full resignation?

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

I don't. I think our judicial system works in a pretty simple way. You're innocent until proven guilty. He's a respected member of our caucus. He's not going to be the leader of the foreign relations committee any longer, but I think he deserves a chance to be able to have his day in court before he's forced out of the United States Senate.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, thanks for spending part of your Easter Sunday this morning with us here on Meet the Press.

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY:

Thanks a lot, Chuck.

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