What tipped the scales for the United States and Iran to enter into a deal?
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Congressman Jim Himes (D-4th District) about the prisoner swap.
Mike Hydeck: So Morad lives in your district, lives in Weston. You're the ranking member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Why was a prisoner swap made now after six years?
Jim Himes: Well, the United States, including the senators and I, and the family and any number of other people have been pushing for this for six years. I mean, you can't imagine the horror of having a family member in a place like Evin Prison for that long, you know, I mean, prison is bad enough, imagine an Iranian prison where you don't know if you're going to be executed the next day, where you can hear the screams of, you know, tortured prisoners. So it's been a very, very happy day. Why the Iranians agreed to it? Now, that's a much more challenging thing. They're coming under a lot of pressure for their support of Russia. You know, there's a big United Nations meeting this week, and at the end of the day, we exchanged both five of their sanction violators and released $6 billion in Iranian money that was held in South Korea. So hard to put ourselves in their shoes. But what I can tell you is that the Tahbaz family is elated that they have their father husband, family member home.
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Mike Hydeck: So let's talk about that $6 billion that was released to Iran. Considering they do have a relationship with Russia, one that is more cautious for us because we're trying to continue to get partners around the world to make sure we're all on the same side, and Russia is not on that side. What does that mean? Are we trying to curry favor with Iran?
Jim Himes: No, we're not trying to curry favor with Iran. We're trying to get our people back who have been unjustly held, illegally and unjustly held for a long time. And, you know, look, if there was a world where we could get our people back and do good and stand for justice, where we didn't have to negotiate with appalling regimes like the Iranians, that would be a nice world. It's just not the one that we live in. And these deals are always hard, Mike. They were hard when Donald Trump negotiated for the release of a Princeton graduate student. It was hard when Ronald Reagan negotiated for the hostage releases of the Iranian hostages at the time. They're hard, but in this case, the money, it's Iranian money, it is being transferred to a bank in Qatar. We will have very close oversight over what the Iranians can borrow, can take that money to do. They can buy drugs, they can buy food, they can buy agricultural implements. We also have the ability to stop that flow of money if we sense that it's being used for things outside of the humanitarian goods that were agreed to in the deal. So you know, you always feel just a little bit dirty when you have to negotiate with the Russians, with the North Koreans, with the Iranians. But at the end of the day, most Americans would agree that we ought to do that so that we're not letting our, you know, brothers and sisters rot away in places like Evin Prison.
Mike Hydeck: While I have you here, I have to talk about the government shutdown. It seems as if it is looming. What's your opinion on it? Where are we? What happens next?
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Jim Himes: I hate to say it, I'm in the minority in the House of Representatives. So I was a spectator to an unbelievable fight between Speaker McCarthy and his Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene extremis. We sort of had nothing to do here. You know, he tried it. McCarthy tried and tried again, to open this route, open that route to keeping the government open and he was stymied by his own people. So I must say, I'm pessimistic. I'm not naturally pessimistic. But I do believe that the government is going to shut down and Mike, that's a crime. You know, what happens when the government shuts down this time? Young marines and sailors and soldiers don't get paid. Air traffic control might not get paid. Social security recipients may experience delays. I mean, this is, you know, you're just, the Republicans are negotiating with the wellbeing of the American people. And, you know, I just hope sanity prevails. But I must tell you, having watched these guys for the last, you know, eight or nine months, I don't have confidence that's going to happen.
Mike Hydeck: Well, speaking of the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, he is going forward with the impeachment inquiry of President Biden to see if he benefited in any way from Hunter Biden's business deals while he was vice president. Even though there has been no evidence brought until this point that could say that, should this still be seen through for the sake of solidifying the truth?
Jim Himes: Well, I guess I would ask people to think about two things. Number one is, we've seen impeachments before, right? And however, whether you believe that the impeachment of Bill Clinton or Donald Trump twice was right or wrong. In each of those cases, there was evidence. In Bill Clinton's case, there was a blue dress that very clearly, you know, indicated that the President hadn't been forthright. In the first impeachment of Donald Trump, there was a transcript of the phone call in which he held up aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on his political opponent. So you could come down either way about whether those guys should have been impeached, but there was evidence. Now we have an impeachment in the absence of evidence. And look, I believe the truth will come out here. I don't believe that Joe Biden is a corrupt man and none of the efforts of the Republicans in the last nine months have floated evidence to suggest to the contrary. But nonetheless, the American people need to understand that this is a new thing, to start an impeachment without evidence and oh, by the way, you know, with gas prices possibly getting higher, you know, with student loan payments coming back online, I would ask the American people to think about, how do you feel about the priorities that you're seeing from the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
