The nuclear deal announced last week with Iran isn't a good one, but is the best the United States can do under President Barack Obama's failed leadership, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on "Face the Nation."
The South Carolina Republican suggested, instead, that the United States maintain the current interim deal in place until the next president is inaugurated in January 2017.
And Graham, who is mulling a White House bid himself, doesn't much think party affiliation will matter when it comes to getting a better deal.
"Hillary Clinton would do better," Graham said. "everybody on our side, except maybe Rand Paul, can do better."
Graham is a critic of what he sees as Paul's dovish foreign policy, though Paul has tried to distance himself, at least partly, from the isolationism of his father, former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Obama is a flawed negotiator, whose foreign policy had failed on multiple fronts, Graham said.
"Nobody in the region trusts him. The Iranians do not fear or respect him. He'll never be able to get the best deal," Graham said. "The best deal, I think, comes with the new president."
Graham and other critics of the deal fear Iran will continue it's nuclear ambitions with or without a deal, and that lifting sanctions will only give them money with which to sponsor terrorism.
"Does anybody really believe the Iranians will take billions of dollars we're about to give them and build hospital and schools?" he said. "How many centrifuges should a nation have whose military leadership called for the destruction of Israel during the negotiations? How many centrifuges should a nation have who is the largest sponsor of state terrorism?"
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