President Trump tossed out a word salad Monday morning, railing against the “Russian Witch Hunt,” among other things, in one of his patented early morning Twitter jaunts. One of the Russia-related topics the President did not directly touch upon (though some people believe he may have been sore about it) was bipartisan Congressional attempts to levy new sanctions against Russia and limit the President’s power to weaken them.
Congress passed a bill last week that punishes Russia for interfering in the 2016 election as well as for annexing Crimea its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Apparently, Russia isn’t very happy with this development. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said this be would detrimental to the U.S. and Russia as well as other countries:
Peskov said Monday that Russia is treating the issue of sanctions “extremely negatively,” especially those currently being pursued in the House and Senate but added that Moscow will “patiently wait for this position to be finalized,” before taking any “retaliatory measures.”
“Talking about some retaliatory measures without even having clear information about the decisions, passed or rejected, would be counterproductive,” he said. “We are not going to do this.’
Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy hopes to vote on the new sanctions bill on Tuesday, but the Senate leadership has not said when they will bring the bill to the floor.
(Via CNN)