Atlanta, GA – As U.S. and Iranian diplomats discuss the possibility of the Biden Administration returning the United States to the terms of the failed Iran nuclear deal enacted by the Obama Administration, Tea Party Patriots Action Honorary Chairman Jenny Beth Martin – who, with then-candidate Donald Trump and others, staged a 10,000-strong rally to oppose the deal on the west face of the Capitol in September of 2015 – today issued the following statement:

“The Biden Administration should stop its efforts to return the United States to the failed Iran nuclear deal right now. That deal was a bad deal when it was first negotiated in 2015, and it’s a bad deal now. It did not and does not strengthen the security of the United States or our allies. It ignored and ignores Iran’s continuing work to develop ballistic missiles, and Iran’s continuing support for international terrorism targeted at us and at our allies. It made and makes the threat posed by Iran worse, not better.

“The Obama Administration’s decision, concurrent with the enactment of the Iran nuclear deal, to transfer $1.7 billion to Iran — $400 million of which arrived in cash, on pallets, in an unmarked cargo plane – allowed the Iranian regime to step up its funding of international terror campaigns targeting the U.S. and its allies.

“To his credit, Donald Trump campaigned against the deal when he ran for president, and promised that, if elected, he would withdraw the United States from it. He lived up to his word, and U.S. security was strengthened. For the new president to act now to return the United States to the terms of the deal is wrong.

“Instead, the Biden Administration should continue the Trump Administration’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ strategy, and should support the enactment of H.R. 2718, the ‘Maximum Pressure Act,’ introduced yesterday by Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana. That legislation would maintain all current U.S. sanctions on Iran until Iran satisfies the 12 conditions laid out by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in his May, 2018 speech.

“Iran is a threat to the U.S. and its allies. The Trump Administration’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ strategy is working. President Biden should recognize that, and stop his efforts to return the U.S. to the failed strategies of his previous administration.”

In 2015, Ms. Martin and then-candidate Donald Trump spoke at a rally in front of the Capitol to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. Photos of that rally are below.