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Text of March 9 press release.
Sen. Toomey recklessly signs letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, endangering nuclear talks
Below is a statement from Admiral Joe Sestak, former Congressman from Pennsylvania who served in the White House on the National Security Council and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Political-Military Assessment Division for both General Colin Powell and Admiral William Crowe (Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). Sestak is running for the United States Senate in 2016.
During my 31 years in the Navy, I went to approximately 80 countries. I have served in the White House as President Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Executive Branch. I also have great respect for the institution of Congress, where I served for four years. But the regard for the institution of the U.S. Presidency and Commander-in-Chief that I saw around the world was unrivaled—as long as we respect it also.
Senators have the absolute right to argue and disagree with the President’s approach to any issue. But for Sen. Toomey to sign a letter to a foreign leader urging that leader to ignore the institution of the American Presidency is inexcusable, embarrassing, and shows a lack of experience and understanding about America’s standing in the world, led first and foremost by the U.S. President.
When Sen. Toomey was a Congressman, he fundamentally misunderstood the proper use of our military in the world when he voted to send us into the Iraq War. Today, Sen. Toomey is again wrong in voicing directly to an adversarial leader his opposition to an ongoing process of American diplomacy, by Toomey’s signing of a letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who has called for “Death to America.”
That Sen. Corker, the Republican Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, did not sign the letter underscores the recklessness of Sen. Toomey’s political actions – that he would tell a leader who wishes us ill to ignore our President’s endeavor. Signing the letter only serves to disrupt a possible effort to bring about a peaceful resolution to the nuclear weapons issue with Iran.
And if the nuclear talks fail, Toomey offers no other option except to go directly to war. Then, once again, we will have a representative who will have pushed our nation into war and – with no skin of his own in the game – will once again walk away from the men and women he sent into battle by voting against 12 Department of Veterans Affairs’ appropriations bills after his vote for the war in Iraq.
This is NOT your father’s Republican Party.