Earnest Calls McCain 'Naïve and Reckless' for Citing Supreme Leader's Words on Nuke Deal

The White House protested today that senators shouldn’t be listening to what the supreme leader of Iran says about the nuclear framework.

In response to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments about the the White House fact sheet being “wrong on most of the issues” of the deal and stressing that there might not be a deal with the “devilish” United States, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) issued a statement yesterday noting that the remarks “suggest that Iran and the Obama administration are on very different pages.”

“It is the Supreme Leader, not Iran’s president or foreign minister, who really calls the shots in Tehran,” McCain said. “So for him to say, as he did today, that Iran will not permit inspections of its nuclear facilities anytime, anywhere — and that sanctions relief must be complete and immediate — would appear to be a major setback.

“These differences need to be thoroughly explained by the Administration if we are to give serious consideration to this agreement.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest replied that the five-term senator, former presidential nominee and current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has no idea what he’s talking about:

Naïve and reckless for @SenJohnMcCain to believe every word of the Supreme Leader’s political speech. He shouldn’t.

— Josh Earnest (@PressSec) April 10, 2015

The White House has maintained that everything from insistence on elements of the deal to statements about destroying Israel and America are just rhetoric for Iranian leaders’ domestic audience.

Iranian leaders — from negotiators to the parliament, in addition to Khamenei — said in the weeks preceding the framework agreement that they would not accept a deal that doesn’t lift all sanctions immediately. Current statements just reiterate that demand.

You can’t trust those Iranians to give a speech, but you can trust them to stop making nukes, huh @PressSec? https://t.co/zmNRqRdBxp

— el Sooper ن (@SooperMexican) April 10, 2015

@PressSec “It’s naive and reckless to believe Iran’s leaders,” says the admin that believes they won’t cheat on nukes. @SenJohnMcCain

— Razor (@hale_razor) April 10, 2015

The still-not-located Supreme Leader’s fatwa against going nuclear – on the other hand – that you can rely on. https://t.co/cwvgmV8fB5

— Omri Ceren (@cerenomri) April 10, 2015

Prudent thing obviously would be to disregard the lunatic cleric with a nuclear program yelling death to America https://t.co/9HDKd8jyeQ

— Michael Goldfarb (@thegoldfarb) April 10, 2015