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Here is one obvious and profound Question, and hopefully someone will summon the courage of John McCain, and ask it:
The law, called the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, called for three analytical reports and the imposition of no less than five punitive measures, out of a possible 12, against Russia for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The administration instead chose to impose zero new sanctions, saying the current ones were working and the “mere threat” of additional steps had had enough impact.
Now we’re left grappling with two questions: Why did the Trump administration reject Congress’s mandate to further punish Russia?
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Even if that ‘paper thin’ rational were true (about ‘the “mere threat” of additional steps’ is enough) — the Law passed by Congress, and signed by the President — HAS NO SUCH “Escape Clause” …
It doesn’t say the President can implement these new sanctions, if and when he feels like it.
It doesn’t say that implementing the new punitive sanctions IS OPTIONAL, and left up to the President’s “discretion” …
NO, instead this new LAW, which passed by a near unanimous Congress, uses the word “shall” — as in this is something that Trump MUST do:
On and after the date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall impose 5 or more of the sanctions described in section 235 [...]
So why hasn’t he?
The deadline has come and gone, and the Trump Administration is still hemming and hawing, trying to find a palatable excuse, for all its Putin-coddling.
In other words, as John McCain so aptly put it the other day: Trump is “doing Putin’s work for him.”
Why is that, we need to start asking? WHY in the world is Donald Trump working for some foreign leader who’s avowed goal is to “undermine public faith in the US democratic process” ???
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Does Trump owe him something?
Does Trump think he is in Russia, and he doesn’t have to obey and implement our Laws?
Did Putin really get Trump elected — so that now Trump does in fact works for him (behind the scenes) — and NOT for the American people?
“We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.”
That assessment is, at least in part, why Congress passed the additional punitive Sanctions against Russia Law …
Is it ALSO the reason that the Trump Administration now refuses to implement them?
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If you wanted a Constitutional Crisis, in some respects we are already there. The Deadline passed, and the Trump Administration did next to nothing about it.
Donald Trump is NOT our King … and voices other than in addition to John McCain’s must speak up and remind him of that.
Perhaps someone in the White House needs to also teach Donald some Basic Civics. You know, about the 3 Co-equal branches of Government, and how he, Chief Donald, is only ‘in charge’ of one of them.