Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) says former President Reagan and the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would be “ashamed” of President Trump’s action Friday to waive sanctions against Russia, less than a month after Trump signed a tough Russia sanctions package into law.
Cassidy vented his disappointment with Trump over his decision to set aside sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its top allies by circulating a critical Wall Street Journal editorial, titled: “To Russia with Love, signed Donald.”
“Reagan and Lindsey would be ashamed of this,” Cassidy wrote above a repost of the Journal’s editorial, featuring a photo of Trump shaking Putin’s hand with Air Force One in the background.
The Journal, which is part of the Murdoch family’s media empire, wrote that “Trump’s assistance to Vladimir Putin keeps growing by the day” and called his decision to waive sanctions “a shiv in the back of the legacy of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.”
The editorial noted that Trump’s executive order waives new sanctions on Russian political and military officials, government entities, financial institutions, the energy industry and the shadow fleet of ships used by Russia to evade international sanctions.
It argued “the evidence compounds that Mr. Trump wants Ukraine to surrender on Mr. Putin’s terms,” pointing out that Trump has dropped sanctions on Russian diesel, has threatened to cut off U.S. intelligence to Kyiv and hasn’t fully explained the impositions on data speed limits on SpaceX’s Starshield network.
“Mr. Trump may not appreciate the anger he’s courting if he keeps aiding Mr. Putin. When the election is over there needs to be a bipartisan reckoning for Mr. Trump’s budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests,” the Journal warned.
The publication declared that Trump “is now Mr. Putin’s best friend in the world, after perhaps China’s Xi Jinping.”
Other Republicans have spoken out against Trump’s treatment of Ukraine in recent weeks and the surprising announcement Friday that the administration would waive tough new Russia sanctions.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) blasted Trump and his advisers for ignoring the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which passed the Senate 86-11 in August and which Trump signed last month.
“What part of enforcing a law passed 86-11 by the Senate does the President and his advisors not understand? It’s unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day,” Tillis posted Saturday on social platform X.
Tillis is one of four Republican senators who signed a bipartisan letter last week to Department of Defense Inspector General Platte Moring demanding an immediate investigation into whether senior Pentagon officials ordered or had advance knowledge of a decision to restrict Ukraine’s access to Starshield, which it needs to operate drones and other military vehicles.
GOP Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) also signed the letter.
Six Republican senators, including Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Alan Armstrong (Okla.), also signed a letter to Trump last week condemning his decision to allow Russia to sell millions of tons of diesel to the United States, in possibly violation of a 2022 law expressly prohibiting the United States from buying Russian energy products without prior notification to Congress.
Updated on Oct. 20 at 8:45 a.m. EDT
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