At the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting which is being held in Minneapolis, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23), who is the chair of the DNC, reportedly blocked consideration of a resolution backing the Nuclear Iran Deal, according to the Washington Post.
The resolution would have put the DNC on record as supporting the agreement in advance of the end of the August recess and the return of Congress members to Washington when they will take up debate on the issue.
James Zogby, who is the co-chair of the DNC’s Resolutions Committee, instead substituted a letter of support for President Barack obama and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“We wanted to show support for the president,” he said. “We found that the best way to show support was a letter that members would sign on to, and the overwhelming majority of DNC members signed onto the letter. This is the President Obama we elected in 2008 who said, ‘I choose diplomacy over conflict,’ and he did it,” the Post reported.
According to Zogby, “a sizable majority of the members of the national committee signed the letter.”
In addition to his position at the DNC, Zogby is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute.
A Democratic Party spokesperson claimed procedural issues were the reason the resolution was not considered, but other party members said Wasserman Schultz blocked it.
Wasserman Schultz has not yet publicly made a commitment either to support or to oppose the deal. She represents a heavily Jewish district which includes Miami Beach and up along the coast to just below Fort Lauderdale and then west to route 27. She sits on the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.