Obama: Congress vote overturning veto of 9/11 legislation ‘a mistake’

President Barack Obama said Congress’ vote Wednesday overturning his veto of September 11 legislation was “a mistake” and “basically a political vote.”

Families of Sept. 11 victims will now be allowed to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged backing of the attackers.

Obama said that a few lawmakers, whom he didn’t name, and who backed the bill were not aware of its potential impact.

Speaking during a CNN town hall event, Obama said he understands why the override went through, given the perceived political peril of voting against 9/11 families before an election.

“I understand why it happened. Obviously all of us still carry the scars and trauma of 9/11. Nobody more than this 9/11 generation that has fought on our behalf in the aftermath of 9/11,” he said.

But, Obama argued, the right and harder thing to do would have been to let his veto stand.

I wish Congress here had done what’s hard,” he said. “It was, you know, basically a political vote.”

“What this legislation did is it said if a private citizen believes that having been victimized by terrorism — that another country didn’t do enough to stop one of its citizens, for example, in engaging in terrorism — that they can file a personal lawsuit, a private lawsuit in court,” he said. “And the problem with that is that if we eliminate this notion of sovereign immunity, then our men and women in uniform around the world could potentially start seeing ourselves subject to reciprocal laws.”

“The concern that I’ve had has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia per se or my sympathy for 9/11 families,” Obama added. “It has to do with me not wanting a situation in which we’re suddenly exposed to liabilities for all the work that we’re doing all around the world.”

Amid Obama’s claims that the vote was a mistaken political move, Republicans and Democrats said the White House had been slow to respond to the bill and miscalculated lawmakers’ intent to act on the legislation along with the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks. When Obama and senior national security officials such as Defense Secretary Ash Carter finally weighed in, it was too late.

The Senate passed the bill by voice vote in May. The Obama White House then made the mistake of thinking the bill would stall in the Republican-controlled House. In August, 9/11 families pressured Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., while he was on a campaign swing in New York.

On Sept. 9, two days before the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the House passed the bill by voice vote with little debate.

Despite reversing Obama’s decision, a bipartisan group of 28 senators led by Bob Corker, R-Tenn., suggested that defects in the bill could open a legal Pandora’s box, triggering lawsuits from people in other countries seeking redress for injuries or deaths caused by military actions in which the U.S. may have had a role.

Corker, the chairman of Foreign Relations Committee, chided the White House for being outraged over the outcome when the administration did so little to sustain the president’s veto.

“There was zero desire to sit down and talk about a way to get to a better outcome. Zero,” Corker told The Associated Press. “To my knowledge, I don’t know of a call from Obama to a single senator over this.”