Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., on Wednesday blasted the White House's "inexplicable" decision to decline imposing the new sanctions on Russia approved by Congress over election interference.
When asked on CNN's "New Day" why the White House declined to impose the sanctions, Whitehouse said:
"That's a good question, and we'd love to have answers to it. The White House has not provided an explanation. Clearly, this was an effort to provide a deterrent punch at the Putin Administration in Russia by tangling with the thing he cares most about, which is himself and the oligarchs around him, and the way they can use the West to hide their ill-gotten gains."
He added, "You've got the whole Senate agreeing with that. It's inexplicable why the president would not go forward and pursue those sanctions."
"As much as the Russians need and deserve a punch in the nose for what they did in the 2016 elections, and a sanctioned regime is the way to do that, we are also trying to work with them in other areas. And to have that continued dialogue, intelligence professional to intelligence professional, is not in itself a bad thing," the Rhode Island Democrat said on CNN.
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