Illinois GOP Sen. Mark Kirk, who's made opposition to the Iran nuclear deal a re-election campaign theme, likened President Barack Obama to a "drug dealer in chief" in light of the $400 million payment linked to Tehran's release of U.S. prisoners.
Kirk, considered one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents on the ballot this fall, made the comment to the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill. in a story posted Saturday.
"We can't have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief, giving clean packs of money to a … state sponsor of terror," Kirk said in the newspaper report. "Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East … We're going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them."
Obama initially said the $400 million — described by the State Department as "leverage" to secure the release of American hostages — was repayment for a failed arms deal decades ago.
It's not the first time Kirk has slammed Obama: the senator railed against him over the Iran proliferation deal in 2015, saying it illustrated his intention "to get nukes to Iran," the Chicago Tribune reports.
Kirk later amended the remark, saying: "That was me being too carried away with, I've been pretty angry about the Iran deal," the Tribune reports.
But the Kirk campaign stood by his latest attack.
"Sen. Kirk was referring to the administration's decision to send pallets of cash, not even U.S. dollars, but euros and Swiss francs, in a clear ransom payment to Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," campaign manager Kevin Artl told CNN on Sunday.
"The decision sets an awful and dangerous international standard that should be investigated and the lack of transparency from the administration clearly indicated they knew their actions were not above board."
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