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Putin ignores Trump, GOP toadies to him: Russia sanctions bill gains momentum as GOP senators attempt to strike careful balance with Trump
"Att: hap0206: Trump is ‘humiliated’: Sir Bill Browder reacts to 'weak' meeting with Putin"
By Ted Barrett, Alison Main and Morgan Rimmer, CNN
Published 3:52 PM EDT, Wed July 9, 2025
A pedestrian walks with an umbrella outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation, near the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, in February 2022. Tom Brenner/Reuters/File
With links
CNN — A bipartisan Russia sanctions bill is gaining momentum in the Senate and could soon come to a vote as Republican lawmakers attempt to strike a careful balance with President Donald Trump.
Key supporters of the bill have expressed optimism that the package has the backing of the president, and Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that the Senate could take up the legislation before the August recess.
A bill with bipartisan support and more than 80 cosponsors could move fast in the chamber, but a challenge for GOP leaders has been to not get ahead of the White House. GOP senators have taken steps not to appear to be jamming the president on the issue, especially as Trump’s views over Russia and Ukraine have at times appeared to change and evolve.
Thune said senators have been in close contact with the White House and their House colleagues as GOP leadership aims to vote on the bipartisan bill this month.
Asked if he’s been talking to Trump about when the bill will come to the Senate floor, Thune answered, “We are communicating with the White House. Our team’s been in touch with theirs on a regular basis.”
“We’ve got individual senators, members who are talking to the White House and to our colleagues in the House, and we’re sort of gaming out how that might ultimately be accomplished,” he continued.
Thune has indicated that he would not advance the legislation without Trump’s blessing. The president told reporters on Tuesday that he was “looking at” the bill, and remarked that the Senate will potentially pass it “totally at [his] option.”
Trump on Tuesday decried what he called “bullsh*t” being peddled by his Russian counterpart, venting anger toward President Vladimir Putin as his efforts to broker peace in Ukraine fall short.
The remark was the clearest indication yet of Trump’s frustrations at Moscow, which has shown no willingness to end its war in Ukraine as it enters a fourth summer.
On Wednesday, Thune called the sanctions bill, which would levy heavy tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian uranium, gas and oil, an “important message to send, especially now.”
Republicans have also emphasized that the legislation would give the president leverage. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, has touted the its inclusion of a measure giving Trump the ability to waive sanctions at a later date.
Graham said Wednesday, “My goal is to get to the president’s desk before the August break … there’s a waiver in the bill to give the president leverage. I talked to the president last week about it. He thinks the bill will be helpful. So we’ll get it to him.”
The South Carolina Republican told reporters on Tuesday Trump “told me it’s time to move. So we’re going to move” on the package.
“You can tell yesterday the president’s willing to change course, and this bill will give him significant leverage over China and India, who prop up Putin’s war machine. And only way we’re ever going to end this war is to have Putin’s customers put pressure on Putin, and my goal is to give President Trump a tool he doesn’t have today from the Congress with a presidential waiver,” Graham said on Wednesday.
Asked if he is supportive of the sanctions bill, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said on Wednesday, “I’m going to talk to the president about that. I know that he, Lindsey, has said that the president is supportive it, wants to move on that. I’m scheduled to talk to the president about that shortly.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, argued that Trump’s waiver authority is “very limited and constrained” in the package.
“Very importantly, in this bill, there’s congressional oversight. We can override the president if we disagree with him, and so it’s not unbridled or unconstrained authority simply to waive the sanctions,” said Blumenthal.
[Insert: Congressional oversight hasn't meant much of anything to Trump in the past:
Trump’s Troubling Rebuke of Congressional Oversight
Congress’ ability to fully know the facts and to investigate them thoroughly is critical
for our democracy to work, argues Brennan Center Fellow Victoria Bassetti.
Victoria Bassetti Tim Lau May 7, 2019
As Congress’ investigations into the Trump administration heat up, the White House has responded by refusing to comply with many of the subpoenas and oversight requests from the House Democratic majority. Citing House Democratic sources, Politico reports that the Trump administration has at least 30 times refused or delayed the release of information requested House committees and half a dozen officials have refused to appear before House panels. Notably, the Trump administration has ignored a deadline for releasing President Donald Trump’s tax returns and attempted to block subpoenas for current and former officials to appear before Congress, including former White House counsel Don McGahn, former White House personnel security director Carl Kline, and senior policy adviser to the president Stephen Miller.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trumps-troubling-rebuke-congressional-oversight ]
“Nobody here should presume that there will be a waiver of these sanctions. They are scorching. They are bone crushing. Vladimir Putin should get the word if he wants to come to the table, now is the time. Otherwise, his economy is going to be hit hard, because India and China will have every incentive to shop elsewhere for their oil and gas,” he added.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/russia-sanctions-bill-senate-trump
"Att: hap0206: Trump is ‘humiliated’: Sir Bill Browder reacts to 'weak' meeting with Putin"
By Ted Barrett, Alison Main and Morgan Rimmer, CNN
Published 3:52 PM EDT, Wed July 9, 2025
A pedestrian walks with an umbrella outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation, near the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, in February 2022. Tom Brenner/Reuters/File
With links
CNN — A bipartisan Russia sanctions bill is gaining momentum in the Senate and could soon come to a vote as Republican lawmakers attempt to strike a careful balance with President Donald Trump.
Key supporters of the bill have expressed optimism that the package has the backing of the president, and Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that the Senate could take up the legislation before the August recess.
A bill with bipartisan support and more than 80 cosponsors could move fast in the chamber, but a challenge for GOP leaders has been to not get ahead of the White House. GOP senators have taken steps not to appear to be jamming the president on the issue, especially as Trump’s views over Russia and Ukraine have at times appeared to change and evolve.
Thune said senators have been in close contact with the White House and their House colleagues as GOP leadership aims to vote on the bipartisan bill this month.
Asked if he’s been talking to Trump about when the bill will come to the Senate floor, Thune answered, “We are communicating with the White House. Our team’s been in touch with theirs on a regular basis.”
“We’ve got individual senators, members who are talking to the White House and to our colleagues in the House, and we’re sort of gaming out how that might ultimately be accomplished,” he continued.
Thune has indicated that he would not advance the legislation without Trump’s blessing. The president told reporters on Tuesday that he was “looking at” the bill, and remarked that the Senate will potentially pass it “totally at [his] option.”
Trump on Tuesday decried what he called “bullsh*t” being peddled by his Russian counterpart, venting anger toward President Vladimir Putin as his efforts to broker peace in Ukraine fall short.
The remark was the clearest indication yet of Trump’s frustrations at Moscow, which has shown no willingness to end its war in Ukraine as it enters a fourth summer.
On Wednesday, Thune called the sanctions bill, which would levy heavy tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian uranium, gas and oil, an “important message to send, especially now.”
Republicans have also emphasized that the legislation would give the president leverage. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, has touted the its inclusion of a measure giving Trump the ability to waive sanctions at a later date.
Graham said Wednesday, “My goal is to get to the president’s desk before the August break … there’s a waiver in the bill to give the president leverage. I talked to the president last week about it. He thinks the bill will be helpful. So we’ll get it to him.”
The South Carolina Republican told reporters on Tuesday Trump “told me it’s time to move. So we’re going to move” on the package.
“You can tell yesterday the president’s willing to change course, and this bill will give him significant leverage over China and India, who prop up Putin’s war machine. And only way we’re ever going to end this war is to have Putin’s customers put pressure on Putin, and my goal is to give President Trump a tool he doesn’t have today from the Congress with a presidential waiver,” Graham said on Wednesday.
Asked if he is supportive of the sanctions bill, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said on Wednesday, “I’m going to talk to the president about that. I know that he, Lindsey, has said that the president is supportive it, wants to move on that. I’m scheduled to talk to the president about that shortly.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, argued that Trump’s waiver authority is “very limited and constrained” in the package.
“Very importantly, in this bill, there’s congressional oversight. We can override the president if we disagree with him, and so it’s not unbridled or unconstrained authority simply to waive the sanctions,” said Blumenthal.
[Insert: Congressional oversight hasn't meant much of anything to Trump in the past:
Trump’s Troubling Rebuke of Congressional Oversight
Congress’ ability to fully know the facts and to investigate them thoroughly is critical
for our democracy to work, argues Brennan Center Fellow Victoria Bassetti.
Victoria Bassetti Tim Lau May 7, 2019
As Congress’ investigations into the Trump administration heat up, the White House has responded by refusing to comply with many of the subpoenas and oversight requests from the House Democratic majority. Citing House Democratic sources, Politico reports that the Trump administration has at least 30 times refused or delayed the release of information requested House committees and half a dozen officials have refused to appear before House panels. Notably, the Trump administration has ignored a deadline for releasing President Donald Trump’s tax returns and attempted to block subpoenas for current and former officials to appear before Congress, including former White House counsel Don McGahn, former White House personnel security director Carl Kline, and senior policy adviser to the president Stephen Miller.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trumps-troubling-rebuke-congressional-oversight ]
“Nobody here should presume that there will be a waiver of these sanctions. They are scorching. They are bone crushing. Vladimir Putin should get the word if he wants to come to the table, now is the time. Otherwise, his economy is going to be hit hard, because India and China will have every incentive to shop elsewhere for their oil and gas,” he added.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/russia-sanctions-bill-senate-trump
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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