The regime that supported President Obama’s worst deal ever and claims to be the champions of human rights…is now attempting to tell President Trump to shut up and pretend the protests aren’t happening…
Breitbart News reports that several key advisers to former President Barack Obama have poured scorn on President Donald Trump’s support for the protests sweeping Iran in recent days.
In 2009, when the “Green Revolution” threatened the Iranian regime, Obama and his administration refrained from supporting the protests. Obama said that “we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran.”
That weak response, and the administration’s general lack of support for the demonstrators, allowed the regime to consolidate power.
Obama was more concerned with preserving the possibility of an eventual deal on Iran’s nuclear program than he was in removing the Iranian regime as a strategic threat or in standing up for human rights. Critics charge that Obama missed a golden opportunity.
President Trump has taken the opposite approach, vigorously supporting the protests and criticizing the regime:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946949708915924994
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/947181212468203520
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/947453152806297600
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/947588263103139841
But the Obama brain trust rejects Trump’s approach and apparently believes the approach Obama took in 2009 remains the best one.
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice tweeted a New York Times op-ed by former Obama aide Philip Gordon, “How Can Trump Help Iran’s Protesters? Be Quiet.” The author argues that supporting the protests, and taking steps to end the Iran nuclear deal, will only help the regime to delegitimize its internal opponents.
How Can Trump Help Iran’s Protesters? Be Quiet. https://t.co/w0MNlWMkxG
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) December 31, 2017
Rice offered no other statement of solidarity for the demonstrators.
Rob Malley, who had once been dropped from the Obama campaign for meeting with the Hamas terrorist group but found his way back into the administration in negotiations with Iran, also praised Gordon’s op-ed.
Strong piece by Phil Gordon https://t.co/6hduqAUVMi
— Robert Malley (@Rob_Malley) December 31, 2017
Malley’s next tweet suggests that conservatives encouraged Iranians to protest a “movement that could come back to haunt them?”.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Iran protests: did conservatives encourage a movement that could come back to haunt them? https://t.co/Wt4V4CEW0B
— Robert Malley (@Rob_Malley) January 1, 2018
And former UN Ambassador Samantha Power used the opportunity to criticize President Trump’s immigration policy:
We stand with the Iranian people so much that we won’t let them come here. https://t.co/fzbv8idiiJ
— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) January 1, 2018