President Donald Trump should impose the Russia sanctions passed by Congress last year in light of President Vladimir Putin's disclosures this week of his new nuclear arsenal, Rep. Marsha Blackburn told Newsmax TV on Friday.
"This would allow us to let it be known that we don't take such conversation lightly," the Tennessee Republican told "Newsmax Now" host John Bachman in an interview.
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"We do not want to do anything that is going to embolden Vladimir Putin."
Trump signed the sanctions legislation last August, though he issued two statements simultaneously saying that he believed the legislation was "seriously flawed."
The White House, however, has yet to impose the restrictions, passed 98-2 by the Senate in June over the Kremlin's involvement in Ukraine and Syria — and its meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Putin this week disclosed that Moscow had tested a new range of nuclear weapons, illustrating their effectiveness with a video showing warheads raining down on what appeared to be an outline of Florida.
"We know that what he would like to do is reconstitute the U.S.S.R.," Blackburn told Bachman, "and we don't want to see that happen.
"We do not like the aggressiveness."
She said that implementing the sanctions — "letting him know that we are watching, that we take all of these comments seriously — is important for us to do."
Blackburn is running for U.S. Senate this year to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
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