Jared Moskowitz To Marco Rubio: 'I Would Have Voted Against Your Confirmation As A National Archivist'

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At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) spoke to Sec. Marco Rubio about his role as National Archivist.

Transcript

00:00Representative Moskowitz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, let me extend my condolences

00:05to the Connolly family. Jerry's wit will be missed in this Congress. And so in the spirit

00:12of Jerry, let me say, Mr. Secretary, that I am deeply disappointed and find your performance

00:18as the National Archivist extremely underwhelming. And just for the record, we don't get to confirm

00:25here in Congress, but if we did, I would have voted against your confirmation as the National

00:29Archivist. That vote never happened, so. I know. I want to talk about Iran for a second,

00:36okay? I'm deeply concerned about the language that I'm seeing from the isolationist wing

00:42of the party. And I've been kind of shocked that the administration seems to be tougher

00:48on Canada, Greenland, than they are on Iran. The Ayatollah insults our president if the language

00:55coming from the Ayatollah was coming from Canada or Greenland or the EU, the president wouldn't

01:01stand for it yet. He allows it from the Ayatollah. Is it your recommendation, I understand that

01:08you can't guarantee what Trump would or would not do, but it is your recommendation to the

01:12president that he sign no deal that allows Iran to keep enrichment?

01:16Well, here's the answer to that question is, the president has made clear that Iran will

01:22never have a nuclear weapon. He's also been clear, and I think you've seen this in statements

01:26over the weekend, for example, that Ambassador Whitcoff did on television and the like, that

01:30if you have an enrichment capability at any level, you are but steps away from nuclear weapons.

01:36Of course. So I think that's why the no enrichment piece is so important.

01:39Right, of course. And that was the issues that many people had with the JCPOA, is they felt

01:44that it kept the enrichment capability along with ballistic missile capability, which Iran

01:48now has, okay, a delivery system. And so what I'm trying to figure out is, you know, there

01:55are many players in this, and I'm going to ask about those, but is it your recommendation,

01:59should the president ask of it, I assume he would, is it your recommendation to the president

02:02that he sign no deal that keeps their ability to enrich?

02:05Yeah, and he doesn't need that recommendation because he's already said that.

02:08Okay. Is it the vice president's position in your conversations with VP Vance that he also

02:14does not believe Iran should have any enrichment capability?

02:16Well, I'm not going to describe our conversations, but I can tell you the vice president's completely

02:20aligned with the president and his foreign policy.

02:22So that is his position then?

02:24The position that they shouldn't have enrichment.

02:25Yeah, is that the vice president?

02:26Yeah, if they have enrichment, then they will have a weapon.

02:29Or at least there'll be a near, and everybody in the administration has been consistent on

02:32that.

02:33Okay, what about Mr. Whitcoff? Is it his position that Iran should not be able to have any enrichment

02:38capabilities?

02:39He has said so in public interviews as recently as this weekend.

02:41Okay.

02:42That this is not an enrichment deal, what level Iran gets to keep enrichment.

02:45What they have said is if Iran wants a civil nuclear program, like they want to have nuclear

02:49energy, there's ways to do that.

02:50Other countries have done it without enrichment.

02:52That opportunity is available to Iran if they seek it.

02:54They haven't been interested in it because they want to keep enrichment.

02:57That's the crux of what we're facing here.

02:59So any deal of the Trump administration is not going to look anything like JCPOA.

03:03Is that your position?

03:05The Trump administration has been very clear that Iran will not get to enrich because if they

03:08enrich their threshold nuclear power.

03:10Okay.

03:11I want to shift for a second.

03:13There was just a leak that is now national news that Israel is poised to strike Iran.

03:21Where did that leak come from in the administration?

03:23Do we know what department leaked that?

03:25Is that being looked into?

03:26Well, I'm not aware of the leak that you're discussing.

03:28I'm obviously, I wouldn't discuss intelligence matters and even verify whether it's even true.

03:33I also don't think it's a mystery though irrespective, I'm not talking about the leak, I'm not talking about the news story

03:38that Israel has made clear that they retain the option of action to limit Iran from ever

03:45gaining a nuclear capability.

03:46I don't think that's a mystery, but I wouldn't comment if I had read the article, I wouldn't

03:50comment on intelligence matters, confirm or deny them.

03:53As far as leaks are concerned, I don't know.

03:55I read stuff in the news every single day that I look at and say, I don't know where these

03:58people are coming up with this.

03:59Well, I mean, they're given polygraph tests in FEMA to determine where leaks are coming

04:04from.

04:05That's been well reported and not disputed by anyone in the administration.

04:08That they're literally going, employee, employee, sitting them down, putting them up to a polygraph,

04:13putting them up to an oxygen monitor, trying to test their heart rate to figure out if they're

04:19leaking to the media.

04:20Is that sort of same application that is happening in FEMA going to be applied to national security

04:26team and to the State Department to figure out who is leaking?

04:30As far as I'm aware, we've not conducted any polygraph tests at the Department of State.

04:35Maybe we should, but we haven't.

04:36Okay.

04:37All right.

04:38So I just want to be clear, because there is a lot of confusion, depending on the day,

04:45the week, and a lot of the reporting that's coming out, is that any Iran deal, is it your

04:51recommendation that that should go to Congress to improve?

04:53Well, I actually think the law requires it.

04:55If you recall, we passed legislation here a few years ago.

04:59And it requires that Congress has a right to weigh in on any deal and could actually reverse

05:03any deal.

05:04I forgot the acronym for the bill, but it was one that was passed a few years ago, and

05:09I was in the Senate when it passed.

05:11It was after JCPOA.

05:12Okay.

05:13Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:14I'll go back.

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