Obama calls Scott Walker's approach to Iran "foolish"
WASHINGTON -- President Obama says Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker would be taking a foolish approach if he follows through with vows to revoke a nuclear deal with Iran if elected president.
The president was asked in an NPR News interview about Walker's recent comments promising to reject any Iran deal Mr. Obama reaches on his first day as president.
And if the president's ability to strike agreements starts being questioned, Mr. Obama told NPR, it will be a problem for allies and embolden U.S. enemies. He says he's confident anyone knowledgeable enough to be elected president "won't won't start calling to question the capacity of the executive branch of the United States to enter into agreements with other countries."
The president said in the interview, "It would be a foolish approach to take, and, you know, perhaps Mr. Walker, after he's taken some time to bone up on foreign policy, will feel the same way.
Walker is a likely contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
On the question of whether it's within the power of the next president to withdraw from the nuclear deal on his or her first day, if Congress has not approved it, the president responded, "[T]here is long precedent for a whole host of international agreements in which there's not a formal treaty ratified by Congress, by the Senate -- in fact, the majority of agreements that we enter into around the world of that nature, including those in which we make sure that our men and women in uniform, when they're overseas, aren't subject to the criminal jurisdiction of those countries."