Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) hit President Joe Biden’s prisoner swap deal with Iran in a new interview, saying he was never on board.
In September, the Biden administration agreed to a deal with Iran that saw five prisoners from each side released and unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets for unsanctioned use to purchase humanitarian items such as food and medicine.
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“The prisoner swap, the $6 billion, I never was for that,” Manchin told Politico.
Shortly after the swap, however, Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas launched a series of attacks against Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and taking more than 200 as hostages in Gaza.
The terrorist attack thrust Biden’s prisoner swap deal into the spotlight, drawing particular scrutiny to it.
Republicans were quick to criticize the choice and called on the president to refreeze the money. However, the matter became bipartisan as the war in Israel intensified. Democratic senators, specifically more centrist ones from vulnerable swing states, began blasting the asset unfreezing.
“We want to be sure that we’re not doing anything to support Iran in this time or giving Hamas or Hezbollah any assets or any support, which we know that they’re both proxies of Iran,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said.
Last week, Manchin and 23 other senators introduced legislation to rescind the licenses that allowed the $6 billion to be unfrozen, naming it the Revoke Iranian Funding Act.
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“To demonstrate our commitment to Israel, we must hold Iran accountable for their sponsorship of Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” Manchin said in a statement. “Our bipartisan legislation will halt efforts to provide billions of dollars to Iran and make sure Congress has the information to act against the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. We must do everything we can to protect our greatest ally in the Middle East.”
After facing bipartisan pressure regarding the deal, the Biden administration told reporters that Iran has yet to access the money. Further, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo reportedly told Democratic lawmakers that the administration and the Qatari government have come to an understanding about blocking Iran from accessing the funds, which are currently in a bank in the country.
