Don’t blame me for our relationship with Russia! It’s CONGRESS who’s at fault says Trump as he fumes over sanctions bill
The president signed a Russia sanctions bill – that also punished North Korea and Iran – because he agrees with the actions on principle, the White House said
But Trump forcefully denounced provisions that checked his authority
Still seething, Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that Congress was to blame for the strain in relations with Vladimir Putin’s government
He signed the bill away from the cameras on Wednesday and sent out statement revealing the depths of his unhappiness
Trump said despite changes, ‘the bill remains seriously flawed – particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate’
By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent
DailyMail.com
3 August 2017
President Donald Trump continued to fume this morning about a veto-proof bill that thwarted his ability to lift congressionally-mandated sanctions on Russia on his own.
The president signed the bill because he agrees with the punishing actions included in it on principle, the White House said Wednesday after Trump forcefully denounced provisions that checked his authority.
Still seething, Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that Congress was to blame for the strain in relations with Vladimir Putin’s government.
‘Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us HCare!’ he said.
The sanctions that Congress cemented in the bill that Trump signed against his will were in retaliation for hacking and leaking schemes and other election meddling that US intelligence agencies have concluded were masterminded by the Russians.
Trump has waffled on Russia’s involvement in the cyber attacks, saying more than once that it was probably the Kremlin, or another actor entirely – ‘nobody really knows for sure.’
Four US intelligence agencies have said they are certain that Putin’s government was behind the cyber assaults. The Kremlin wanted to undermine confidence in the United States democratic process, they’ve said.
Trump claims that he pressed Putin on the issue twice during a recent summit, even though he argued at a press conference two days before that Russia may not have been the culprit.
Trump signed legislation Wednesday that slaps new sanctions on Russia and limits his own ability to create waivers ‘in the interest of national unity.’
‘The president favors tough measures to punish and deter the bad behavior of the rogue regimes in Iran and North Korea,’ White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, ‘and he also sent a clear signal that we won’t tolerate interference in our democratic process by Russia.’
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