Russia sanctions: GOP senators balance between Trump and legislation

Russia sanctions: GOP senators balance between Trump and legislation

A cross-party law for sanctions against Russia is gaining in the Senate and could soon be voted in, since Republican legislators are trying to make a balanced relationship to the President Donald Trump to be found.

Optimism of the supporters

The central supporters of the law have expressed their confidence that the package has the president's consent. Majority leader John Thune said on Wednesday that the Senate could check the legislation before the August break.

challenges for the GOP leadership

A law with cross-party support and more than 80 co-signers could quickly progress in the Senate, but the GOP leadership is faced with the challenge not to urge the White House. Republican senators have taken measures so as not to give the impression that the president in this topic overrides, especially since On the subject of Russia and Ukraine seemed to change.

coordination with the White House

Thune emphasized that the senators are in close contact with the White House and their colleagues in the House of Representatives, while the GOP leadership is planning to vote on the cross-party law this month. When asked whether he had spoken to Trump about the schedule for the debate in the Senate, Thune replied: "We communicate with the White House. Our team is regularly in contact with their team."

Trump's position on the sanctions

thune said that he did not want to advance legislation without Trump's approval. The President told the reporters on Tuesday that he "looked at" the law and noticed that the Senate could say "according to [his] decision".

Trump criticized what he described as "nonsense", which his Russian counterpart spread, and expressed his displeasure about President Vladimir Putin, whose efforts to get peace in Ukraine.

economic effects of the sanctions

On Wednesday, Thune described the Sanction Act as an “important message” that must be sent especially now. The Republicans also emphasize that the law would give the president scope for action. Senator Lindsey Graham, the initiator of the law in the Senate, praised the paragraph contained in the draft, who gives Trump the opportunity to suspend the sanctions at a later date.

Trump's influence on legislation

Graham said on Wednesday: "My goal is to bring the law to the president's table before the August break ... There is a regulation in the law that gives the President there. I spoke to the president last week. He thinks that the law will be helpful. So we bring it to him."

strategic goals of the sanctions

The Republican from South Carolina informed the reporters on Tuesday that Trump had told him that it was "time to act". "Yesterday it was clear that the president was willing to change the direction, and this law will give him a significant impact on China and India, which Putin's war machinery support. The only way we can ever end this war is that Putin's customers put pressure on him, and my goal is to give President Trump a tool that he does not have from the congress today," said Graham on Graham am Wednesday.

monitoring by the congress

When he was asked whether he was supported by the Sanction Act, the Republican Senator Josh Hawley replied on Wednesday: "I will talk to the president about it. I know that Lindsey said that the president wants to support and progress. I will soon be agreed with the president."

Senator Richard Blumenthal, the leading democratic co -signer of the law, argued that the president's authority to give the president was "very limited and limited". "It is very important that a congress supervision is intended in this law. We can override the president if we do not match him, and it is therefore not an unbroken or unrestricted authority to simply cancel the sanctions," explained Blumenthal.

"Nobody should assume that there will be an exemption for these sanctions. They are devastating. Vladimir Putin should understand: If he wants to sit at the negotiating table, the right time is now.

Kevin Liptak from CNN contributed to this report.