A Republican senator has compared President Obama to a  drug dealer  in controversial remarks just coming to light.The Senator in question is Illinois  Mark Kirk, who is in a tight fight for re-election this year. Kirk s comments came as part of ongoing criticism of the Obama administration s actions to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. We can t have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief,  Kirk said.  Giving clean packs of money to a   state sponsor of terror. Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East.  . We re going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them. Kirk was responding to reports that the administration paid $400 million in cash to Iran in January as Iran released Americans that had been held as prisoners. The money was part of a previously announced settlement in a case stemming from money owed since 1979, but the timing had not been known until this month.The State Department has debunked conservative conspiracies about the money given to Iran, pointing out that the money was Iran s own and frozen as a result of sanctions that were previously put in place. Releasing them was part of the negotiation process for the Iran deal. Republicans have falsely claimed that the money was a  ransom  paid to the Islamic nation.Kirk s harsh comments and their racially charged context comes at an unusual time for the senator. He has distanced himself from the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, as his opponent Rep. Tammy Duckworth leads him by 7% in the most recent poll.Illinois is a heavily Democratic state and is of course the home state of President Obama. Hillary Clinton is expected to easily win there this fall, and the already endangered Kirk may further injure his campaign with these new allegations.Featured image via screen capture