Appearing on the Thursday edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word, former Vermont Democratic Governor and MSNBC contributor Howard Dean put forth the analogy that the author of the letter sent to Iran in Republican Senator Tom Cotton (Ark.) is like to far-left actress and activist Jane Fonda visiting North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
In addition, The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons praised Iran for being “serious” and “really want[ing] to achieve something” while negotiating a deal concerning its nuclear program, and specifically foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for being someone whose known by “many of us here in Washington” as “a pro” in dealing with hardliners back in Iran.
Referring to Republican Senator John McCain’s comments about why he signed the letter, Dean used the former prisoner of war (POW) in Hanoi during the war to develop his comparison:
I was very surprised McCain signed the letter in the first place. He gets what you're supposed to do. He was a prisoner of war in Hanoi for a very long time, and I don't probably think he liked it when Jane Fonda went over there and had a few things to say and I think this is somewhat similar and I think Cotton doesn't get it.
After some comments from MSNBC senior editor Beth Fouhy about where some of the 2016 presidential contenders stand on the letter, host Lawrence O’Donnell turned to Clemons to express how “striking” the Iranian response to the letter has been in that: “[T]he Ayatollah himself is actually hanging in there and saying, you know, he's praising the Iranian negotiators who are working on this, when this could be the moment, if he chose, to just pull out of the whole thing.”
Clemons agreed and emphasized that their current stance is “a market indicator of the seriousness of Iran” as opposed to “[t]he Iran that we've known for many decades” which “would have grabbed the letter, would have stomped around, and used it as an excuse for all sorts of theatrics and drama.”
He continued:
A serious Iran that really wants to achieve something is going to shrug this off. Javad Sherif knows this country very well, the foreign minister who was their ambassador to the United Nations, many of us here in Washington know him. He's a pro and he understands that he needed to react to a certain dimension for the audience back in Iran, but they didn't overplay it and they're showing a maturity we're not used to seeing out of Iran.
Dean returned to the discussion by strangely flipping the script and agreeing with Cotton’s position that there are not “any moderates in Iran, but the interesting thing about it is there's very some hard line people in Iran” and was about to elaborate on the fact that there have been “more hangings” in the country than anywhere else worldwide when he was interrupted by O’Donnell.
The seven-minute-long segment wrapped up with Dean and Clemons comparing the 47 Republican Senators who signed the letter to the “hardliners” in Iran with Dean conveying that “both” the Obama administration and the Iranian government “have to throw our hard liners over the edge” to achieve a deal.
Clemens nodded and advanced the legitimacy of the negotiations in Switzerland by comparing the talks to then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger “driving normalizations with China” in the early 1970s:
I mean, I think there’s hardliners on both sides of this. We were just talking about John McCain for a moment. I think the thing that's lurking in the back of McCain's minds is one of his best friends –life long friends is Henry Kissinger. He defended him recently in a Senate hearing from protesters and I think in the back of John McCain, who ran for the presidency, what if Tom Cotton pulled this stunt when Henry Kissinger was driving normalization with China? Because those are historical analogous and I think that's why McCain wishes his name was not on that letter.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on March 12 are transcribed below.
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
March 12, 2015
10:21 p.m. Eastern
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: John McCain described his decision to sign the letter to Politico as saying, “I sign lots of letters.” Today, the German Foreign Minister said, “it’s not just a matter of U.S. politics. It has an impact on the talks in Geneva because now fo course mistrust is growing on the Iranian side about whether our side is really serious about negotiations...This is not a trifle. The negotiations are difficult enough, so we didn’t actually need further irritations.” But Senator Tom Cotton has an answer for anyone who warns him that his letter might ruin the negotiations and he actually gave that answer long before he wrote the letter.
(....)
O’DONNELL: Joining me now, The Atlantic's Steve Clemens, along with MSNBC senior editor Beth Fouey and Howard Dean. Howard Dean, a feature, not a bug.
HOWARD DEAN: I'm very surprised at this. First of all, I was very surprised McCain signed the letter in the first place. He gets what you're supposed to do. He was a prisoner of war in Hanoi for a very long time, and I don't probably think he liked it when Jane Fonda went over there and had a few things to say and I think this is somewhat similar and I think Cotton doesn't get it. Cotton is a veteran, you know, he had a decorated career in the Army. A Rhodes scholar, of all people, he should know that you don't do this. If you serve in the Army with a Commander-in-Chief, you don't do this. You can disagree. I don’t disagree with what he said. He has a right to say that, but to give comfort to the enemy, which is the hardline in Iran, I think was shocking. Just shocking and I'm very surprised McCain signed the letter. I think he’s having second thoughts.
(....)
O’DONNELL: Steve Clemens, one of the striking things is the reaction of the Iranian leaders. They – they could use this to kind of publicly play tougher with the President and with the other negotiators in this, the other countries negotiating and now instead, they're dismissing the Republican position, and the Ayatollah himself is actually hanging in there and saying, you know, he's praising the Iranian negotiators who are working on this, when this could be the moment, if he chose, to just pull out of the whole thing.
THE ATLANTIC's STEVE CLEMENS: Well, honestly, it's a market indicator of the seriousness of Iran. The Iran that we've known for many decades would have grabbed the letter, would have stomped around, and used it as an excuse for all sorts of theatrics and drama. A serious Iran that really wants to achieve something is going to shrug this off. Javad Sherif knows this country very well, the foreign minister who was their ambassador to the United Nations, many of us here in Washington know him. He's a pro and he understands that he needed to react to a certain dimension for the audience back in Iran, but they didn't overplay it and they're showing a maturity we're not used to seeing out of Iran.
(....)
CLEMENS: I agree. I mean, I think there’s hardliners on both sides of this. We were just talking about John McCain for a moment. I think the thing that's lurking in the back of McCain's minds is one of his best friends –life long friends is Henry Kissinger. He defended him recently in a Senate hearing from protesters and I think in the back of John McCain, who ran for the presidency, what if Tom cotton pulled this stunt when Henry Kissinger was driving normalization with China? Because those are historical analogous and I think that's why McCain wishes his name was not on that letter.
O’DONNELL: We know exactly what Kissinger would have done. He would have put them on the wiretap last, the Henry Kissinger wiretap list that he personally ran out of the White House.
