CLAIM: CBS Moderator Margaret Brennan claimed that “Iran is weakened” because of President Joe Biden.
VERDICT: FALSE. Biden relaxed sanctions against Iran, giving it access to billions and making it stronger and bolder.
The first question of the vice presidential debate was a very specific one: whether each candidate would approve a preemptive strike against Iran, given that it has continued to attack Israel and is developing a nuclear weapon.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) dodged the question and trashed former President Donald Trump instead. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said that he would support whatever Israel decided it needed to do to defend itself from Iran.
But the moderator set up the question with an inaccurate statement, claiming that “Iran is weakened” because of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As Vance pointed out, Iran is stronger under Biden-Harris.
Biden and Harris dropped many of the sanctions that Trump had imposed on Iran, allowing it access to billions of dollars in assets. Biden and Harris also allowed Iran access to global oil markets, where it could earn billions more.
Faced with provocations by Iran, and attacks on Israel by Iranian proxies, the Biden-Harris administration backed down. In fact, they were often more concerned with placing pressure on Israel to make compromises. They also restored funding to organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which Trump had cut off due to concerns about its connections with Iranian-backed terror groups. The Biden-Harris administration also pressured Israel to give away an offshore gas field to Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, could benefit.
Moreover, Biden sent a special envoy, Robert Malley, to Europe in a vain attempt to revive the defunct (and fatally flawed) nuclear deal. Malley ended up being suspended due to suspected breaches of classified information with Iran.
The Biden-Harris administration also pulled support for Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, and removed the Houthi rebels in Yemen, another Iranian proxy, from the terrorism list. That allowed Iran to threaten global shipping lanes as well as the U.S. Navy and American allies. Ultimately, the Saudis restored ties to Iran — and did so in Beijing.
Finally, as Vance pointed out, Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than it has ever been before. Far from being “weakened” under the Biden-Harris administration, Iran is stronger than it has ever been. The only thing that has changed is that Israel is confronting Iran more forcefully than before. It has been forced by Biden and Harris to do so.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.