‘Wildly unacceptable’: Trump’s moves on Russia are testing GOP patience

Congressional Republicans are voicing irritation over President Donald Trump's Friday executive order suspending fresh sanctions on Russia's economy, even though he had signed the underlying sanctions legislation only a month earlier. With the midterm elections two weeks off, however, most are leaving the matter to him, and no concrete plan for a response exists. Questions have also surfaced over a disruption of Ukraine's Starlink satellite connection, according to MS NOW.

Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania took the hardest line after a bipartisan call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, promising "punitive budgetary action" and demanding to know who caused the outage. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington was not involved and that Ukraine never had Starshield. Zelenskyy told lawmakers the service is still degraded and that intelligence sharing on Russian ballistic missile warnings was also disrupted, according to Senators Richard Blumenthal and Thom Tillis. A possible vehicle for pressure is the lame-duck session, with a December 11 funding deadline and the defense authorization bill.

Others were milder. Representative Mike Turner called for an investigation but rejected brinksmanship. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said she was surprised by the waiver but suggested little could change before the election.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →