'Wrong about nearly every major…decision': Watch Tom Cotton's harsh response to Joe Biden on Iran

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Tuesday dismissed Vice President Joe Biden as someone who isn't qualified to judge foreign policy issues, and defended the right of Senate Republicans to weigh in on efforts to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran.

"Joe Biden, as Barack Obama's own secretary of defense has said, has been wrong about nearly every major foreign policy and national security decision in the last 40 years," Cotton said on Tuesday's Morning Joe.

That was a reference to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who wrote a book that said Biden "has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

The critique from both Gates and Cotton is a deep blow to the expertise of Biden, since he led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for four years, and was the top Democrat on the committee for several more years.

Cotton's comments were the latest round in a political fight that started when Cotton and most Senate Republicans warned Iran in an open letter that Congress would at some point play a role in accepting or rejecting a nuclear deal. That letter seemed to be an attempt to tell both Iran and the Obama administration that Iran needs to agree to end its nuclear ambitions completely.

The letter set off a raging political fight almost as soon as it was released. Senate Democrats accused Republicans of hating Obama and trying to get him to fail in his negotiations with Iran.

The New York Daily News ran with a cover calling Republicans who signed the letter "traitors." And Biden said the GOP letter was "beneath the dignity" of the Senate.

Cotton also responded to Biden by saying he's part of an administration that opposes Senate consideration of any nuclear deal that might be reached.

"If Joe Biden so respects the dignity of the institution of the Senate, he should be insisting that the president submit any deal to approval of the Senate, which is exactly what he did on numerous deals during his time in the Senate," he said.

The Obama administration has said the emerging deal would not be a treaty that needs Senate approval, and instead would be an executive branch agreement that does not need to go to Congress at all. However, both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate support legislation that would require Congress to approve any deal that might be reached.