FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: PATRICK EGAN
[email protected]
New York, NY — Wendy Long, the Republican, Conservative, and Reform parties’ nominee for United States Senate in New York, today made the following statement regarding the revelation that the Obama Administration paid a ransom to Iran in the form of “wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies . . . on an unmarked cargo plane” as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Chuck Schumer, a purported leader of the United States Senate, should be demanding that the Obama Administration come clean about the ransom they lied about and paid the Iranians for American hostages. This ransom undermined congressional sanctions that were in place against Iran. Schumer’s silence is tantamount to his supporting the ransom and the deceptive way that Obama transferred the money, to prop up a regime that the State Department has designated the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world — a sworn enemy of the United States. Paying ransom to that enemy sends the wrong signal worldwide. It says that America can be intimidated into helping her enemies, and it encourages our enemies to kidnap more Americans.”
“Schumer thinks he can do the bare minimum of checking a box — voting “no” on the Iran deal — and that he has no higher responsibility, either to lead opposition to that deal, or to monitor and speak out against outrages like the one exposed today. This is a pathetically low job performance, and one that the people of New York and America should not settle for and should not reward with re-election to a fourth term of churning and self-aggrandizement by doing nothing to solve the serious threats that our country faces.”