Putin suck-up and unindicted co-conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump finally signed the Russia sanctions bill after five days of sitting on it. Realizing a veto would be overwhelmingly rejected by a Congress that passed the bill 98 - 2 in the Senate, and 419 - 3 in the House, Rump signed it, but had to take some parting shots in his signing statement, while praising himself:
"...The bill remains seriously flawed – particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate. Congress could not even negotiate a healthcare bill after seven years of talking. By limiting the Executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people, and will drive China, Russia, and North Korea much closer together.... Yet despite its problems, I am signing this bill for the sake of national unity. It represents the will of the American people to see Russia take steps to improve relations with the United States. We hope there will be cooperation between our two countries on major global issues so that these sanctions will no longer be necessary....I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress." (emphasis added)So the bill "encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate," does it? Read that as "I didn't want to anger my handler Vladimir, who helped me get elected." The "deals" he thinks he can make wouldn't be for the benefit of the country, unless he's talking about Russia and his own corrupt businesses that rely on Russian cash. Note the expressed hope that "there will be cooperation between our two countries on major global issues," ignoring the reason these and earlier sanctions were imposed were Moscow's undermining of our elections to elect Rump, and their takeover of Crimea and military interference in Ukraine, global issues in their own right.
