A bipartisan briefing on the Iran ceasefire deal turned tense when President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly berated a Democratic congresswoman and cut off her microphone after she pressed him on the details of the agreement.
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said she asked Witkoff direct questions about who authored the 14-point memorandum of understanding with Iran and why its terms appeared to favor Tehran from the start, and she also asked how much of his time as envoy was actually devoted to U.S. diplomatic work versus his own business interests, reported The Daily Beast.
“How much of your work in the region is for the United States of America and resolving these issues, and how much of your time is being spent on your own ventures?” Dean said. “That, I think, really ticked them off, and that’s when I got cut off. As I said, they cut off my mic. They had not done that to other people, and so I didn’t get to have a rebuttal.”
Witkoff, a real estate investor with no prior diplomatic experience, has taken a lead role in negotiating foreign policy alongside Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Dean complained that the Trump pal was vague about Iran's uranium and an offer to allow the country to access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund.
“I was simply asking tough questions about who wrote the MOU, why does it sound so in favor of Iran, and from literally paragraph one, we’re already out of sync with what was to happen,” Dean said.
Speaking afterward, Dean argued the war with Iran as reckless and unconstitutional, and reminded Republican colleagues on the call that more than a dozen American service members have died in the conflict since late February, with hundreds more wounded and significant civilian casualties across the region.
Dean also raised concerns about Witkoff's dual role as a businessman and presidential envoy, suggesting it warrants closer scrutiny. She said she expects that scrutiny to come in the form of formal oversight if Democrats win back the House majority in November.
The congresswoman compared her call with Witkoff to a separate bipartisan dinner she attended that evening at the Qatari embassy, where she said diplomats from Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia struck a far more cooperative tone, expressing a desire to work within the existing agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“So it was a jarring contrast,” she said. “I’m talking with literally our alleged envoy and diplomat. They were not diplomatic with us. They were not forthcoming with us, and we had a very robust conversation at the embassy this evening.”
The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment on Dean's account of the call.
