Scott Walker: Iranians not coming to table ‘out of the good nature of their hearts’

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker responded to a recent dig against him by President Obama by saying Mr. Obama should spend more time trying to figure out how to work with other politicians and reiterating his criticism of ongoing negotiations over a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

“This is a president who should spend more time trying to figure out how to work with governors and members of Congress instead of attacking them,” Mr. Walker said Wednesday evening on Fox News’ “Hannity” program.

“This is a guy in the last year who called ISIS the jayvee squad, who called Yemen just last fall, his administration continues to call them a success story, who had a secretary of state under Hillary Clinton that gave Russia a reset button and then they ultimately went into the Ukraine,” Mr. Walker said. “This is a guy who [has] the audacity to be talking about schooling anyone when it comes to foreign policy.”

The White House says it’s not personal, but President Obama has gone after Mr. Walker recently by suggesting the governor needs to “bone up” on foreign policy in an interview with NPR and criticizing Mr. Walker for signing right-to-work legislation in the state.

Mr. Obama’s singling out Mr. Walker has offered the possible 2016 presidential candidate with somewhat of a head-to-head platform to hit back at the president — which he did again Wednesday evening. Mr. Walker has criticized Mr. Obama over the potential deal the administration is negotiating on Iran’s nuclear program, saying he’d immediately invalidate it if elected president.

Mr. Walker said the Iranians are not coming to the negotiating table “out of the good nature of their hearts trying to push for world peace.”

“They’re coming to the table because they were being brought to their knees because of the sanctions from the United States and from our allies particularly in Europe,” he said. “And right at the time when they’re working think about this kind of negotiation. We should have been saying here’s the deal: you take it or if not we’re going to go back to our allies and push for even stronger sanctions because we know they’re working and the deal is you got to get out of terrorism and you got to prove you don’t have any nuclear weapons and that’s the only deal we’re negotiating.”