Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on Sunday asserted that economic sanctions — even if they hurt U.S. consumers — are necessary as Russia carries out its war against Ukraine because “there’s too much at stake.”
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union," McCaul, who was visiting Poland, also blasted the “carve-out” for energy from Russia, saying the arrangement “has to stop.”
“There's too much at stake here,” McCaul said. “We saw it on the ground…the images I saw today are very reminiscent of the 1940s. It was really heartbreaking and left quite an impression. With freedom of democracy, which I think is enough, there is too much at stake in the region with respect to the Black Sea energy control, what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is trying to do with energy.”
“Too much at stake with what [China’s] President Xi [Jinping], how he's going to analyze this with respect to Taiwan,” he continued. “At a minimum, as I urge the Secretary [of State Antony Blinken], please tell the president of the United States to stop the imports of Russian energy that are fueling this slaughter — and frankly in violation of the Geneva convention as a war crime. We cannot be funding that, and it's 8% of our imports. That would be an easy decision in my book.”
According to McCaul, the current sanctions are having an impact.
“This carved-out exception for energy, that's a lifeblood for Putin, and I believe he's using that money to spill blood in Ukraine,” McCaul said.
“I think symbolically the idea that we're funding Putin's war machine, and quite frankly, genocide that we're seeing on the television, that has to stop.”
Related Stories:
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.