Was the Biden admin irresponsible for downplaying $6B Iran deal?
The Big Weekend Show panelists weigh in on criticism facing the Biden administrations $6 billion Iran deal in exchange for American prisoners, reached last month.
The $6 billion in assets freed by President Biden has been revived in the public eye after the Iranian-backed Hamas launched deadly attacks against Israel.
On Saturday, thousands of rockets were fired into Israel and dozens of fighters infiltrated through the border. Israel quickly retaliated and ignited a war that has since killed more than 1100 people and wounded thousands more. The number of Israeli civilians and soldiers that were taken hostage is still unknown.
Republican critics have since brought up the billions of dollars in unfrozen Iranian assets in attacks against Biden for indirectly funding terrorism. On Sunday’s "The Big Weekend Show," FOX News host Joey Jones remarked that this was just the latest in the administration’s failures with Iran.
"It’s not this $6 billion being used to do this offensive operation by Hamas. It’s a posture of our administration towards Iran and Iran’s presumptive freedom to act as they will," Jones said.
AT LEAST 1100 DEAD, ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU DECLARES ‘WAR’ AFTER HAMAS TERRORISTS LAUNCH MASSIVE ATTACK
Smoke rises after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP)
Co-host Lisa Boothe added, "Anthony Blinken also said today on ‘Meet the Press’ that ‘oh yeah, they always spend their money on terrorism.’ So why would we support them in the first place? Why unfreeze the money in the first place? Who cares if it’s been spent? Who cares? Why do it in the first place? Why renegotiate the Iranian deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism? It’s dumb policy and it’s evil."
Members of the Biden administration have repeatedly insisted that the $6 billion can only be used for humanitarian purposes and would not have been spent in these attacks. However, many have argued that money is fungible and could have been diverted elsewhere.
The Biden administration's freeing of $6 billion in Iranian assets has been attacked in the light of the Gaza-Israel war. (Photo by Probst/ullstein bild via Getty Images,Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
REPUBLICAN SENATORS BASH BIDEN’S $6B IRAN DEAL IN PUSH TO SUPPORT ISRAEL
"It’s more than the $6 billion," FOX Business reporter Lauren Simonetti remarked. "It is the fact that were not enforcing sanctions. It’s this whole policy of appeasement. It is the U.S. being weak on the world stage and when we don’t fill that position of power, bad people come in and fill it for us. That’s what’s happening in the Middle East and other parts of the world as well."
"Also, the $6 billion was released to get hostages back. Well, there are hostages," Jones pointed out. "Hamas has hostages now, so what are they going to do?"
More than a thousand Israeli and Gaza citizens have been reported dead on Sunday. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
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The administration has yet to release the names of the Americans killed and has acknowledged the possibility of more U.S. citizens being held hostage in Gaza.
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