Sen. Pat Toomey said Monday that President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit last week was “a great disappointment.”
“I think the meeting with Putin was a great disappointment,” Mr. Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, said on MSNBC. “Vladimir Putin needed to come away from that meeting knowing he needed to pay the price for her aggression in Crimea, for his aggression in Ukraine, for his aggression in the American elections.”
Mr. Toomey did say, however, that the Russia issue still isn’t as big of an issue to the U.S. electorate as other issues like health care, but that the Senate’s bill on Russian sanctions is telling.
“I think the vote in the Senate on the Russian sanctions bill tells me something. It significantly shifts power and authority from the White House and the presidency to the Congress. It takes away the president’s unilateral ability to lift sanctions,” he said.
When asked if the White House had a role in the sanctions bill, Mr. Toomey said no.
“I’ve gotten zero on this, and I have a great deal of interaction with the White House,” he said.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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