MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: The Iran Deal

Interview

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MATTHEWS: Senator -- thank you. Senator Jeanne Shaheen is a Democrat

from New Hampshire. She sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and the

Armed Services Committee. Thank you so much, Senator.

My view of this is if you bomb all the facilities over there, like

some of these people want to do, just go out and bomb them right now,

you`ll slow them down three or four years, at the most. But if you have a

deal with them to relieve sanctions and get them to quit for 10 years and

hope that things will be different at the end of those 10 years, that`s a

smarter option.

What`s your view?

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D), NEW HAMPSHIRE: Well, I think a negotiated

agreement is better than military action, assuming it`s an agreement that,

as you point out, is going to keep them from getting to a nuclear weapon in

the next 10 years.

There are parts of this agreement, as I understand -- I haven`t had a

chance to review it yet -- but that not only address 10 years but some

things like, keeping them from doing the metallurgy that they would need to

have to get a weapon is delayed for 15 years. They`re looking at the

supply chain and the mines and all for uranium. That`s even longer.

So I think we need to closely examine this deal and make sure that the

verification mechanisms are there, make sure that we know what`s going to

happen with the sanctions. And I hope that`s what Congress is going to do,

rather than to come to a decision immediately that this is not a good

agreement.

MATTHEWS: Well, when I look at it, it takes the president to override

-- to override the president, you need 67 votes in the Senate.

SHAHEEN: Right.

MATTHEWS: If he can hold 34 away from voting to override, he can

sustain this treaty. Is that a reasonable hope on his part, that he can

hold at least 34 senators to support the treaty?

SHAHEEN: Well, I think it is. I think that was the way the

legislation was designed, to give Congress input but also to make sure that

this is an agreement that has the support of enough members to make sure

that it`s a good agreement, and that`s what we`re beginning to look at now.

You know, this is only day one. It`s disappointing for me to hear so

many people already coming out without having a chance to review the

agreement and saying this is a bad deal.

Well, we need to take a look at it. We`ve spent years negotiating

this, and now Congress needs to spend the next 60 days looking at what`s in

it, making sure that this is an agreement that we can support and not

automatically saying that people don`t support it without ever looking at

it.

MATTHEWS: What`s your estimate of our ability to just destroy all

their nuclear program right now, just turn it into nothing? Do we have

that capability, if we chose to go that right-wing hawkish direction, which

I think is the alternative to what we`re talking about here?

SHAHEEN: Well, that is the alternative that many people who don`t

like the agreement are talking about. And I think a negotiated option is

better than a military option. I don`t think people want to go to war.

And what we`ve heard from some of the experts is that even if we

bombed the sites in Iran, that it would delay the nuclear program only, as

you pointed out, for a couple of years, and that`s not an answer to what we

want.

MATTHEWS: OK. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. By the way,

congratulations again on getting reelected. I covered your campaign. It

was a great campaign.

SHAHEEN: Well, thank you. I`m glad to be here and at this momentous

time.

MATTHEWS: Thank you so much.

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