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Ten Senate Democrats warned the White House in a letter Tuesday that they will support legislation imposing new sanctions on Iran if a framework to roll back the country’s nuclear program isn’t reached within two months. "In acknowledgement of your concern regarding congressional action on legislation at this moment, we will not vote for this legislation on the Senate floor before March 24," said the letter, led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is the co-author of Iran sanctions legislation. "After March 24, we will only vote for this legislation on the Senate floor if Iran fails to reach agreement...

U.N. gives mixed signals on Tehran cooperation as nuclear talks intensifySenate Democrats on Tuesday backed away from a bipartisan push for immediate new sanctions on Iran, bowing to President Obama’s call not to undercut international talks to get Tehran to curb its nuclear programs in the coming weeks. The shift, announced Tuesday by Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat and one of the party’s outspoken hawks on Iran, came amid a series of mixed signals from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency over the question of whether Tehran was honoring promises to put its suspect nuclear programs on hold as...

Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A heated exchanged between President Barack Obama and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) broke out Thursday over whether the U.S. should reimpose sanctions on Iran amid ongoing negotiations over the country's nuclear program, according to two senators who were in the room. Menendez, the leading Democrat pushing for additional sanctions against Iran, forcefully pressed Obama on the need for additional sanctions during a meeting in which Obama urged Menendez and other senators to drop their efforts to pass sanctions legislation. Additional sanctions, Obama argued, could torpedo ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The unusually sharp exchange, between...

Menendez: Obama Admin Statements on Iran 'Sound like Talking Points Straight out of Tehran'

The Jerusalem Post reports: Secretary of State John Kerry would not guarantee the US will veto unilateral Palestinian actions at the United Nations, speaking to reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve made no determinations about language, approaches, specific resolutions, any of that,” the secretary told the press in London. “This isn’t the time to detail private conversations. or speculate on a UN Security Council resolution that hasn’t even been tabled.” Tabled yet or not, Jordan and France have publicly declared their intentions to move forward with resolutions that would set a UN-mandated timeline for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, without approval...

On her last Sunday as host of CNN's State of the Union, Candy Crowley received a fist bump from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who thanked her for a "job well done." "I just want to congratulate you," Schumer told Crowley. It's been an amazing 27 years. You're the best of the old-school journalism. You study it thoroughly. You ask the hard questions. You get the answers. And there's no gimmicks or anything else."

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. fired back at Texas Senator Ted Cruz for remarks he made over the weekend about his borough. During a speech in Dallas Saturday, Cruz said he was tired of northern senators like Charles Schumer lecturing him on border security. He then added, "I understand that Manhattan is very concerned with their security with the Bronx, but it's a little bit different on 2,000 miles of the Rio Grande." Diaz Jr. responded, "This is unbecoming of him as a U.S. Senator, you know, who wants to be President of the United States—which, last I checked,...

Democrats made a mistake by passing President Barack Obama’s health-care law in 2010 instead of focusing more directly on helping the middle class, third- ranking U.S. Senate Democrat Charles Schumer said today. “Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them” in electing Obama and a Democratic Congress in 2008 amid a recession, Schumer of New York said in a speech in Washington. “We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem -- health care reform.” Schumer said Democrats should have addressed issues aiding the middle class to build confidence among voters before turning to...

Well, yet another Clinton White House expose has hit the stands, and this one not only further betrays their disingenuous and calculating nature, but makes clear that Hillary had powerful enemies within the Democratic party long before the Obama wing ever raised it's (horned) head... One person described as not keen on the idea of Clinton joining the Senate is Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who was so fearful of being up-staged he coached Rep. Rick Lazio (R-LI), Clinton’s eventual Republican opponent, on his 2000 campaign, according to Lazio. “I thought he was generally . . . he was supportive,” Lazio said of Schumer....

New York Officials Argue for Flexibility with Gun Law Violators… As Long as They're on the City's PayrollSome of New York's most strident gun control advocates have rushed to the defense of an unwitting traveler who was arrested at an airport for a technical violation of a draconian gun law. Has a new era of sanity arrived in the Big Apple? Not really. This defendant happens to be an NYPD officer who is alleged to have violated India's strict firearm regulations. On March 10th, NYPD Officer Manny Encarnacion was arrested when officials at the airport in New Delhi discovered three...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Monday seeking to bar Iran's proposed U.N. ambassador, Hamid Abutalebi, from entering the United States. The legislation, introduced by Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, would prevent "known terrorists" from entering the United States to serve as U.N. ambassadors. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure by a voice vote. The possibility that Abutalebi may have played a role in the 1979-1981 hostage crisis has outraged some of the U.S. Embassy workers held by the Iranians for 444 days. Several lawmakers had said they were infuriated that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would make such...

Schumer at AIPAC 2014NY Senator Charles Schumer railed Monday against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, saying that the movement is a modern form of anti-Semitism. “It is very suspicious that those who boycott Israel don’t want to boycott anywhere else in the world,” Sen. Schumer told AIPAC. “I believe that those who call for boycotts of Israel without calling for boycotts of other neighboring nations are practicing, whether they know it or not, whether they admit it or not, a modern form of what we call anti-Semitism.” “The word that describes all of these acts is a very simple one:...

Free Speech: The IRS scandal is not only not over but is getting worse, with a call by New York's senior senator for the already-politicized agency to use its power to tax to destroy the conservative grass-roots movement. Arguing that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision allowed Tea Party groups to "funnel millions of undisclosed dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government," Charles Schumer wants the IRS and other government agencies to take on the Tea Party through their administrative powers. "It is clear that we will not pass anything legislatively as long as...

Senate Democrats vented their frustrations over the faulty rollout of the Affordable Care Act in a meeting Thursday with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior officials. “There’s a lot of frustration, everywhere,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said after the meeting. McDonough tried to assure angry senators he is personally taking charge of the disparate federal offices in charge of implementing the massive law, which has been plagued by technical errors. “He gave us the impression that he’s taking charge of the different elements and cracking the whip. He said to let him know if we had...

The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement. House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default. “They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going...

<p>Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., had heard enough on Friday. Once again a fellow senator, this time Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, accused him on the chamber floor of wanting to shut down the federal government.</p> <p>The freshman senator from Texas delivered a brisk defense.</p>

“We’d like to move them both together,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democratic leader. “I think having them together is a good thing because who wants to go through this again. “The hopes is maybe once the Tea Party has realized it’s not getting its way on shutting down the government that they won’t try the same stunt on debt ceiling,” he said. Democratic leaders dismissed House Republican efforts to pass piecemeal funding bills to reopen the government.

According to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev, it's apparently Ted Cruz's fault that he gave CNN's Dana Bash the answer he did regarding children with cancer, going by audio posted Wednesday at Real Clear Politics. Politico's Dylan Byers, in the meantime, was busy covering for the Senate Majority Leader by trying to make people believe that Reid didn't say what he said, Newsbusters' Tom Blumer reported. Bash asked why Reid did not support a GOP measure that would help children with cancer. "But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?" she asked, according to...

Looks that way, according to the Washington Post. As the Senate prepares to begin debate next week on the biggest gun-control bill in nearly two decades, the gun rights lobby and its Senate allies are working on a series of amendments that could have the opposite effect — loosening many of the restrictions that exist in current law. Most worrisome to those who advocate new gun limits is an expected amendment that would achieve one of the National Rifle Association’s biggest goals: a “national reciprocity” arrangement, in which a gun owner who receives a permit to carry a concealed weapon...