President Barack Obama called Republicans' opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement rhetoric that does not reflect reality.

Obama was asked during a press conference Monday afternoon about president-elect Donald Trump's insistence the United States should potentially withdraw from the Iran deal.

"Iran is a good example of the gap I think between some of the rhetoric in this town, not unique to the president-elect, and the reality," Obama said. "I think there was a really robust debate about the merits of the Iran deal before it was completed. And I actually was pretty proud of how our democracy process went."

Obama went on to explain how Iran has been abiding by the rules set in the agreement, which was put together in order to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon.

The president then pointed out backing out of a deal that includes five other countries, plus Iran, would have consequences on several fronts.

"For us to pull out would then require us to start sanctioning those other countries, in Europe or China or Russia, that were still abiding by the deal because from their perspective Iran had done what it was supposed to do," Obama said. "So it becomes more difficult, I think, to undo something that's working than undo something that isn't working.

"When you're not responsible for it, I think you can call it a terrible deal. When you are responsible for the deal, then preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, you're more likely to look at the facts."