House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Saturday that President Trump should submit any eventual deal with North Korea to the Senate for approval as a treaty, saying lawmakers should have a full say on the matter.
The California Republican said President Obama bungled the Iran nuclear deal negotiations by not treating them a treaty but instead as an executive agreement. That made it easy for Mr. Trump to revoke U.S. participation in the deal earlier this year.
Mr. McCarthy told MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt the treaty route is a way of not only making the deal lasting, but also of countering those who argue Mr. Trump’s tear-up of the Iran deal makes other countries uncertain of negotiating with the U.S.
“The one thing I have found, if it’s going to be long-standing, I think treaties are longer standing and supportive from administration to administration,” Mr. McCarthy said.
He also disputed those who said ripping up the Iran agreement made negotiating with North Korea harder, saying he didn’t see how the U.S. could negotiate with the Pyongyang regime to end its program even as it had a deal in place that allowed Iran to develop weapons in the future.
“How can you negotiate with North Korea to say to end the nuclear weapons that they have if you’re allowing Iran to develop one? That, to me, was the wrong approach all along, and I think the President took the right approach by saying no to Iran and sitting down with North Korea and saying you have to stop,” he said.
Mr. McCarthy compared Mr. Trump’s approach to that of President Reagan in dealing with the Soviet Union, when Reagan was willing to talk when the negotiations were going the way he wanted, but willing to walk when they veered off track.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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