MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: Iran

Interview

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MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. President Obama and supporters  of the nuclear deal with Iran reached what could be a major victory today.  Four more U.S. senators came out in favor of the agreement, bringing the  total to 42. That is enough to block a congressional rejection of the deal  without the need for the president to veto it.

Congress has until September 17th, next Thursday, to vote on the deal,  but opponents aren`t going down without a fight. Today, former vice  president Dick Cheney called the agreement "madness" and warned that the  results could be catastrophic for national security.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is one of the four senators  who came out in favor of the deal today. Senator Blumenthal, it`s a great  honor to have you on. I can only imagine what you`ve been through in your  heart, staying up at night thinking about it.

Tell us -- take a minute or so. Take us through your own battle with  this decision.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: There were very strong and  compelling arguments on both sides, and friends and supporters on both  sides. It has been a deeply difficult decision.

But at the end of the day, I decided that supporting this agreement  was the best path to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and doing so by  peaceful means, through diplomacy, not military force.

And one of the key facts for me, as I learned throughout this process,  was that our allies and partners in this negotiation are not coming back to  the table, and rejecting this deal means that the United States, not Iran,  would be isolated, that Iran would be enjoying the results of sanctions  being lifted, a huge windfall, without any kind of discipline or united  action.

I want the United States to be in the lead here through diplomacy and  to be able to stop the funding of terrorism through a crackdown and  overwhelming sanctions that we can help to lead going forward. And that  was ultimately very persuasive to me, as well, as I stayed up those nights,  that looking forward, I hope through unilateral action or consulting with  our allies, we can take specific steps to strengthen and improve this deal,  which is far from perfect.

MATTHEWS: OK. Let me ask you, was there ever a time during the  decision-making, the personal decision-making, where you thought you would  go the other way? Did you ever get hit with a really good argument against  this deal?

BLUMENTHAL: Iran is not to be trusted. That`s a good argument  against this deal. There are shortcomings in the inspection verification  process, another good argument. And there are also shortcomings in the  duration of the agreement.

As I spoke to opponents of the agreement, I saw arguments on the other  side, and some of them were made with tremendous passion…
 
MATTHEWS: I`ll bet.

BLUMENTHAL: … and vehemence. But at the end of the day, I became  persuaded as a matter of conscience and conviction that supporting the  agreement was right for America and right for our allies.
MATTHEWS: I was just as a -- it just happened that, over the weekend,  I was reading Jay Winik`s amazing book about World War II.

And there`s chapters in there about the Holocaust which I have never  read anything like them before, firsthand account of a survivor of  Auschwitz, and the way in which he saw the German, European, if you will,  sadist, sadistic torture of people, torturing them right to the very end,  humiliating them right to the end, with nobody ever stepping up and saying,  how can we be doing this?

No one said no. Did that enter into your thinking, that there was  such a recent history in the human experience that made you wonder, do the  Jewish people have to look out for themselves?

BLUMENTHAL: Chris, my dad came to this country in 1935 to escape  persecution in Germany.

He succeeded in bringing here his immediate family, but I lost family  in the Holocaust. And that memory is still very much a part of who I am.  And I`m very much aware of the need to be resolute and steadfast in support  of Israel, as well as our other allies in the Middle East, that they will  need military assets, and I`m determined to fight for them, in order to  maintain their qualitative edge and also for their survival.

And so I`m determined to make some good come of this agreement to  strengthen and improve it.
MATTHEWS: I hope so much you`re right. I think you are. Senator  Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, thank you so much, who decided today to  support the agreement.

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