Fox Reporter Repeats Debunked GOP Claim That Obama Is Withholding Iran “Side Deals” From Congress

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox's Doug McKelway parroted a false claim made by congressional Republicans alleging that President Obama failed to provide Congress with the details of a “side deal” between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as part of the Iran nuclear deal. On September 8, in an attempt to “halt the House's upcoming vote on a measure disapproving of the Iran nuclear deal,” GOP Rep. Peter Roskam attempted “to force a vote ... on a resolution that [said] President Barack Obama has not submitted the entirety of the [Iran Nuclear] agreement to Congress,” according to Politico. But the arrangements made between Iran and the IAEA are “standard operating procedure” and are confidential, as is “every such agreement the IAEA has with other countries” -- and those agreements are not subject to congressional approval. Reporting on the the House of Representatives' vote to reject the Iran nuclear deal, network reporter Doug McKelway repeated the GOP's debunked claim without noting this, saying that “What's lacking is this side deal, the two side deals between the IAEA and Iran, which nobody in this legislature has yet seen.” From the September 11 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:

DOUG MCKELWAY: It was not lost on members today that these two votes on the Iran deal, Iran of course being the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, occurred on the 14th anniversary of 9/11, the largest terrorist attack in United States history. The first vote today in the House was on whether to approve the Iran nuclear deal. It, of course, was destined to fail in the GOP-held House and it did that by an almost 2-to-1 margin. But it was designed to put members on the record for this historic, or historically bad, agreement.

[...]

MCKELWAY: Speaker Boehner hinted yesterday that Republicans might sue in court to block this Iran deal. Of course, they say that the Iran deal has not been turned over in its entirety to them. What's lacking is this side deal, the two side deals between the IAEA and Iran, which nobody in this legislature has yet seen. Jon, Back to you.

JON SCOTT: Yeah, hard to know what's in the deal when you haven't seen all the details.