Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not “give a damn about sanctions.”
Partial transcript as follows:
KRISTEN WELKER: Senator, I have to ask you about this sanctions bill that has the backing of, frankly, more than 80 other senators.
GRAHAM: 85
WELKER: Okay, there you go. You’ve been putting off bringing it to the floor for more than four months now. If this summit does not produce a ceasefire agreement, will you commit to bringing that bill to the floor?
GRAHAM: I talked to the President about the bill. I think it will help him in court, his tariff policies being challenged in court, if Congress creates a tariff regime giving the President authority to set tariffs to go after people who buy Putin’s oil. I think he’s got a stronger hand legally. But he’s doing everything the bill does. He put a 50% tariff on India for their buying Russian oil. He talked to me a lot about China. He talked to me about two other countries that buy Russian oil. So he’s doing it through executive action, and I’m okay with that. But I stand ready to help the President. And when we get back in September, let’s have this conversation.
WELKER: Senator, I need to get to Gaza. But why punish India more than Russia?
GRAHAM: More than Russia?
WELKER: Shouldn’t he be sanctioning Russia?
GRAHAM: Well, the one thing I can tell you, Putin could give a damn about sanctions. He evades them. He could give a damn about how many Russians die. The one thing that he can’t tolerate and live with, if we go after his customers. The whole goal is to crush his customers, India, and China, and Brazil. That if you keep buying Putin’s oil and prop up his war machine, you will be denied access to our economy. This is a new strategy. Trump is all in in terms of going after Putin’s customers if we can’t end this well. Without oil and gas revenue, Russia collapses.
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