Congress condemns President Trump's giveaway to Putin as sanctions waiver and diesel deal spark outrage
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Senators from both parties blasted President Trump's indefinite suspension of newly enacted sanctions on Russia as a lawless gift to Moscow and a danger to Ukraine, while lawmakers move to stop the diesel agreement.
President Trump announced an indefinite waiver of the Russian sanctions package that had been approved by the Senate, claiming national-security reasons. The move, coming soon after a diesel supply deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, drew fierce condemnation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill who saw it as a blatant favor to Moscow.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called the move "beyond irresponsible" and questioned whether the administration even understood the law passed 86-11 by the Senate. He said lowering energy prices should mean confronting the conflict in Iran, not handing concessions to Moscow.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said the late Sen. Lindsey Graham would have been appalled by the waiver, citing the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions Act that Graham had pushed before his death.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the waiver "gives the Russian economy life support" and denounced the deal as "dirty." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) accused the president of "thumbing his nose" at Congress and helping enable Putin's war of aggression, urging colleagues to move quickly to reverse the decision.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has kept working with the United States despite past tensions, appealed to supporters to speak out for the sanctions.
With the House and Senate on recess until after Election Day, immediate congressional action appears unlikely, though Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation to block the diesel deal, calling it "corrupt" and contrary to U.S. values.
In South Carolina, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill her brother Lindsey Graham's Senate seat, said she shares the president's goal of ending the war and lowering fuel prices, but she would prefer to keep pressure on Russia, expressing distrust of Putin.
The waiver follows a bipartisan Senate effort earlier in the week urging the administration to clamp down on Russia's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, a key component of the sanctions law that was set to take effect on Sunday.