Day 196: Trump and Russia: Back on the Same Page
Both executive branches of the two governments blamed the U.S. Congress.
In looking at 2016 election irregularities, the U.S. intelligence community has overwhelmingly stated their belief that Russia was behind a number of email and server hacks, as well as behaviors designed to influence the electorate.
As a result, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his continually growing team are investigating all things related to election irregularities as a result of Russia interference. Furthermore, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill that strongly sanctioned Russia.
After the Senate passed the sanctions on Iran and Russia 98–2, the bill languished in the House for more than a month amid a series of procedural fights. Then the House added North Korean sanctions before passing the measure 419–3, effectively forcing the Senate to swallow the new sanctions in order to get the legislation over the finish line before Congress left for its August congressional recess.
The House and Senate struck a deal to make some changes to the bill at the urging of a host of US industries and European countries, but Congress did not consider making the change that the White House wanted: removing the congressional review on Russia sanctions from the bill.
White House officials lobbied to weaken the section giving Congress a veto on the easing of sanctions, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Congress the administration should have “flexibility” to negotiate with Russia and improve relations.
In other words, if Trump — a man who has endlessly cozied up to Russian president Vladimir Putin and has refused to condemn him for virtually anything— wants to ease sanctions on Russia, Congress has the power to override him.
Trump would have ordinarily vetoed the bill, but his hands were tied since Congress has a veto-proof majority (only five total members of Congress voted against the measure) due to a little thing the Founding Fathers ensured: checks-and-balances.
But surprise, surprise: both the Russians and Trump had similar talking points tearing down that institution.
Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, blames Congress in almost the exact same manner that Trump does. Trump’s tweet from this morning seeks to excoriate a body that had 517 out of 522 voting members approve the sanctions. He wants to overcome that for reasons that remain wholly unclear. (Though we would be remiss if we didn’t note that Mueller’s probe will look into ties between Russia and various individuals in the election, including Trump and his team. In addition, Trump seems be particularly nervous about Mueller’s power with numerous reports out of the White House in the last several weeks that Trump is trying to find a way to oust Mueller.)
Trump’s position on the sanctions has opened the door to a number of questions. Why is he against the sanctions? The talking point is that it will make diplomacy harder to engage, but, again, the Russians did everything possible to covertly influence a U.S. election and undermine the nation’s democratic tenets. Why would the U.S. want to quickly explore renewing the relationship? And why is Trump so much in favor of capitulating to the Russians — and only the Russians — at the drop of a hat?
Maybe Mueller will tell us.
196 days in, 1266 to go
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