because if we think back to the legislate -- legislation that i and eliot engel originally authored and tried to push in terms of the negotiation, that legislation which passed this house 400-20 and then was blocked over in the senate at the request of the administration and could not come up, that would have given the ayatollah a choice between economic collapse or real compromise on his nuclear program. and i want to get to this point. that the president offers a false choice between this agroment or war.

. >>> this is congressman eliot engel of new york.ident obama last year's state of the union. congressman engel at the state of the union. here he is with president george w. bush at state of the union. here he is with president bill clinton at state of the union. snagging a prime seat is a sport and congressman eliot engel is tom brady. the person who will be addressing congress is pope francis. actually informed his address to congress is going to resemble a state of the union. appropriate francis is going to enter down the same aisle as the president. it's going to look exactly the same except for all the touching. turns out that leaders from both parties are now being instructed that there is a leave room for the pope rule when it comes to this visit and this speech. congressional leaders are so worried about their members' inability to control themselves each party has designated human buffers. members of congress who agree to sit in those prime seats along the aisle and not only not touch the pope themselves, they agree that the

myself and eliot engel were in one of the tunnels there is 33 that were discovered. they need to be rebuilt according to the eyes the irgc in iran. so that government is offering to rebuild those tunnels for hamas, resupply hamas with weapons. and the question i have is in the middle of this negotiation, you have the head of the quds forces who personally led a raid into israel, who helped overthrow the government in yemen, win over allies, who has led forces in syria and in iraq, who has killed 500 americans, this individual reportedly made a trip over to russia in order to talk with russian officials. i wonder what he wanted. one of the things we know he wants is greater capability in offensive weaponry, missiles and otherwise. and now the russians are talking about sending to iran new missiles. those are the types of weapons that iran would like to put in the hands of hezbollah. and now that they're in syria, by the way, they're on the border and recently iran has been charged with firing missiles from syria into israel. so what i see here is a need to really focu

because if we think back to the legislate -- legislation that i and eliot engel originally authored and tried to push in terms of the negotiation, that legislation which passed this house 400-20 and then was blocked over in the senate at the request of the administration and could not come up, that would have given the ayatollah a choice between economic collapse or real compromise on his nuclear program. and i want to get to this point. that the president offers a false choice between this agroment or war. even a supporter of the deal testified in front of the committee that i chair i wouldn't say that if you were opposed to this deal that somehow that leads to war. i think that's false, said the witness on behalf of the administration. it is false. it is false. indeed the country's top military office, chairman of the joint chiefs, recently testified in front of congress disputing the i sergs that it was this deal or war noting that the united states would have a range of options. what are those options? the most important one, the most important option that we had, the most effective

rebuilding the tunnels that eliot engel and i have been in. that's another commitment apparently that the irgc is making. so when we put that down payment into their hands, that's where the down payment goes. and as iran will be reconnected to the global economy, this is going to jump-start those businesses that the irgc runs over there. so to our dismay, in addition, iran won a late concession to remove international restrictions on its ballistic missile program and on conventional arms, imperiling the security of the region. frarningly, when we talk about the -- frankly, when we talk about the removal of the ballistic missile programs, we have to remember the words of the ayatollah, it's the responsibility of every military man to figure out in iran how to help mass produce icbm's. i don't think he's talking about a space comment with that comment. so mr. chairman -- the reason i don't think it is he follows it up with "death to america." that's why i think it that his line of thought is one which is a national security threat to the united

eliot engel: thank you, mr. chairman. i want to go back to 10 years. after the 15 years, they are a legitimized state. that means they can produce weapons grade enriched uranium without limitation. you can say they are already at that point now. why would we not try to negotiate a deal where they cannot have those things in 15 years. i also want to mention that a nuclear agreement does not whitewash the fact that iran continues to maintain a destabilizing sector in the region and continues to contribute to terrorism across the globe. the concern is that the funding of terrorism will continue to affect them in a existential way. one of the issues i have had with this agreement was from day one, it limits to their nuclear program. with this agreement, how i look at it, the financing of terrorism will continue and could become much worse. the ride many in revolutionary guard corps could take advantage of any sanctions relief. simply put, money is fudgable. how specifically will we work with our allies to limit the windfall and to protect our allies like i

are not just going to have the eliot engel aisle hogs to contend with, there's pope francis. for lack of a better term, he's a touchy pope. not touchy as in testy, he hug, he holds hands. he does not shy from human contact. between pope francis, man of the people, and congressional aisle hogs these designated aisle blockers are going to have their hands full on thursday. pray for them. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." >> luckily for the aisle hogs they are not changing the rules permanently. just for the big day. >>> scott walker's final words as a presidential candidate today were to attack donald trump. donald trump hasn't had time to strike back at scott walker because he's busy tonight having a twitter war with bill o'reilly. and frank rich will join us to explain the importance of donald trump. >> today i believe that i'm being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race. >> scott walker, governor of wisconsin, is dropping out of the race. >> i will suspend my campaign immediately. >> what's changed? >>

myself and eliot engel were in one of the tunnels there is 33 that were discovered. they need to be rebuilt according to the eyes the irgc in iran. so that government is offering to rebuild those tunnels for hamas, resupply hamas with weapons. and the question i have is in the middle of this negotiation, you have the head of the quds forces who personally led a raid into israel, who helped overthrow the government in yemen, win over allies, who has led forces in syria and in iraq, who has killed 500 americans, this individual reportedly made a trip over to russia in order to talk with russian officials. i wonder what he wanted. one of the things we know he wants is greater capability in offensive weaponry, missiles and otherwise. and now the russians are talking about sending to iran new missiles. those are the types of weapons that iran would like to put in the hands of hezbollah. and now that they're in syria, by the way, they're on the border and recently iran has been charged with firing missiles from syria into israel. so what i see here is a need to really focu

now myself and eliot engel were in one of those tunnel, there were 33 of them that have been discovered. they need to be rebuilt apparently in the eyes of the ir grmbings c in iran. so -- irgc in iran, so that government is offering to rebuild those tunnels for hamas, resupply hamas with eapons and the question i have is, in the middle of this negotiation you have the head personally who led a raid into israel, who helped overthrow the government in yemen, one of our allies, who has led forces in syria and in iraq, who has killed 500 americans, this individual to tedly made a trip over russia. i wonder what he wanted. when one of the things we know he wants is greater capability in offensive weaponry, missiles and otherwise, and now the russians are talking about sending to iran new missiles. those are the types of weapons that iran would like to put in the hands of hezbollah and now that they're in syria, by the way, they're on the border and recently iran has been charged with firing missiles from syria into israel. so what i see here is a need to really focus on the fact that this tr

this was a hard-fought case over several administrations, and in the prior congress myself and eliot engel had legislation which would have put additional pressure on iran, that passed here by a vote of 400-20, but it was the administration and it was secretary of state kerry who made certain that that bill was bottled up in the senate and could not see the light of day. now, the billions in sanctions relief that iran will get upfront will support its terrorist activity, but those billions are just a down payment. as this agreement reconnect iran to the global economy, and one of the things that bothers me most about this is that iran is not a normal country with normal businessmen running those companies. when those companies were nationalized, they were turned over to the irgc. they were turned over basically to the leaders in the military, and they were turned over to the clerics and so as future contracts go forward with iran, it is that entity that is going to be rewarded, is going to have the political power. for those of us that hoped to see change in iran, now the best connected pe

this was a hard-fought case over several administrations, and in the prior congress myself and eliot engel had legislation which would have put additional pressure on iran, that passed here by a vote of 400-20, but it was the administration and it was secretary of state kerry who made certain that that bill was bottled up in the senate and could not see the light of day. now, the billions in sanctions relief that iran will get upfront will support its terrorist activity, but those billions are just a down payment. as this agreement reconnect iran to the global economy, and one of the things that bothers me most about this is that iran is not a normal country with normal businessmen running those companies. when those companies were nationalized, they were turned over to the irgc. they were turned over basically to the leaders in the military, and they were turned over to the clerics and so as future contracts go forward with iran, it is that entity that is going to be rewarded, is going to have the political power. for those of us that hoped to see change in iran, now the best connected pe