CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow said Sunday that he is eying a challenge against Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, following the incumbent’s vote in support of the Iran nuclear deal.
“We’re looking at it really carefully and I’m leaning toward it. I’m not ready to make an announcement, you know there’s a lot of moving parts to these things,” Kudlow said on WFSB’s “Face the State.”
Kudlow’s comments come almost a month after he said on his radio show that he would challenge Blumenthal if he voted in favor of the deal. Blumenthal has joined 41 other Senate Democrats in repeatedly fending off Senate Republican efforts to quash the deal.
“I’m very disappointed in that vote. I think it was a terrible vote. I think he put party over country,” Kudlow said on WFSB. “We’re giving Iran, or we’re allowing Iran to get roughly $150 billion some odd dollars and that is a huge mistake in my opinion. They’re going to use that money to kill more American soldiers as they have for many many years, to increase their dominance in the Middle East and of course the nuclear side of it doesn’t make any sense to me, it’s unverifiable and the Iranians lie and there are secret deals.”
Kudlow would be a big get for national Republicans — he noted in his radio interview that the National Republican Senatorial Committee had reached out to him about a possible challenge. He said Sunday that if he did run, he would seek to expand the Republican base, reaching out to gay voters, African Americans and other groups who typically vote Democratic.
Kudlow, a one-time Democrat who worked as an associate budget director under President Ronald Reagan, said he was surprised that Blumenthal did not join other Democrats, like Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who broke rank to oppose the deal.
“And I thought Sen. Blumenthal would look at it the way Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland did or Sen Schumer of New York did. You know, dispassionately look down the list and he didn’t. He just made a party line vote,” Kudlow said.
Blumenthal announced his support of the deal Sept. 8 with a similar rationale laid out by the White House: no better deal was available.
“Rejecting this agreement is fraught with unacceptable risk. Our formal negotiation partners and allies have signaled clearly that they are not coming back to the table — a point confirmed in my conversations and meetings. There is no better deal available now,” Blumenthal said in a statement.