The progressive advocacy group MoveOn is calling out Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the streets of New York City this week, with a new "SchumerMobile" highlighting his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.
The truck-mounted billboard shows a photo of Schumer and labels him "Most Likely to Start a War," next to a photo of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) as the "runner-up." Schumer and Menendez are the only two Democratic senators thus far to publicly break with President Barack Obama and oppose the deal.
The billboard will make its official debut Monday at noon in front of Schumer's Manhattan office, according to Politico, "along with a life-size cutout of the senator for constituents to take selfies and record video messages."
Over the next five days, the billboard will also make appearances at NYC landmarks like Times Square and the United Nations, and will visit the offices of undecided Democratic House members in the area. New York's other Democratic senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, has already said she will back the deal.
On July 14, the president announced a historic agreement to limit Iran's nuclear ability in return for an easing of oil and financial sanctions. Next month, Congress will vote on a measure to revoke Obama's ability to provide some of the sanctions relief. Both sides have been heavily lobbying lawmakers in the meantime.
A group opposed to the Iran deal will also be holding a rally outside Schumer and Gillibrand's New York City offices Tuesday, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) confirmed as speakers.
In a recent speech at American University, Obama said that opponents of the deal are effectively choosing war over diplomacy.
"By killing this deal, Congress would not only pave Congress' path to a bomb, it would accelerate it," Obama said. "The choice we face... is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon."
Obama clarified that he doesn't believe Schumer wants to go to war with Iran during an interview with The Forward on Friday.
"I think it's very important to distinguish between impugning the motives of people," he said. "I don’t think somebody like a Chuck Schumer wants war. That's not the argument I was making."
"What I've said is that if you reject the deal, we have to be realistic about what options are available," the president went on. "We shouldn’t be pedaling [sic] the notion that there's going to be some easy answer and we're going to grab some magic beans and suddenly solve this problem, or that there’s a short-cut where we just kind of continue with business as usual, and the Chinese or the Russians or the Indians or the Japanese are all going to agree to continue maintaining sanctions as they have been, despite the fact that they believe, as I do, that this is a very good deal and they disagree with those who oppose it."
UPDATE: 1:59 p.m. -- Video of the rally Monday: