People said it was too late. They said it would be embarrassing because few people would show up.
Those people were wrong.
The Stop Iran Now rally in New York City’s Times Square on Wednesday, late afternoon proved Americans are riled up about the deal made between the United States and the other members of the P5+1 (the U.K., France, Russia, China, plus Germany). Thousands showed up and lined 7th Avenue in Manhattan for blocks and blocks.
The total count was 12,000, as Master of Ceremonies Jeff Wiesenfeld told the crowd halfway into the event.
Wiesenfeld also repeatedly called on New York Senator Chuck Schumer to do the right thing and help defeat the Iran deal.
As a former aide to New York Governor George Pataki (R), New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato (R) and New York City Mayor Ed Koch (D), Wiesenfeld told the crowd he had the opportunity to meet and to know former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Moynihan was revered as a moral hero. Pausing dramatically, Wiesenfeld addressed Schumer: “You, sir, are no Daniel Patrick Moynihan.”
There were dozens of police and other security officers, and although the event was still going strong when it was scheduled to end at 7:30, the crowds remained, waving their flags, chanting “Kill the Deal,” and pressing against the barricades.
Every effort was made to turn the rally into a truly bipartisan event. Few of the speakers were Democrats, but that is, according to Wiesenfeld, because even those New York Democrats who initially signed on to speak were later told by their party’s leadership not to show up.
But despite those efforts, the speakers were relatively diverse, and included such self-proclaimed liberal Democrats as Harvard Law Professor (emeritus) and author Alan Dershowitz, and former United States Attorney and long-time Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morganthau.
The theme of the rally was that the nuclear deal entered into by the U.S. and its partners with Iran is not just bad, it is potentially world-shatteringly awful for the United States and for most of our closest allies both in the Middle East and throughout the world.