White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that President Trump has been tougher on Russia than previous presidents.
“You cite like one example for each of those individuals,” Sanders told a reporter who asked if Trump was tougher toward Russia than former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, or John F. Kennedy.
Reagan, the reporter noted, famously urged communist leaders to tear down the Berlin Wall, after Carter boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Kennedy blockaded Soviet ally Cuba.
“Let me list off just a few of the actions the president has taken that previous administrations haven’t,” Sanders said.
“The Treasury Department issued new sanctions on numerous individuals and entities in Russia. The president’s continued other sanctions on Russia’s malicious cyberactivity in response to election-hacking. He’s expelled 60 Russian operatives from the United States and closed two consulates. The president’s issued four statements condemning Russia’s poisoning of U.K. citizens on U.K soil. He’s authorized the sale of lethal aid to Ukraine. He’s authorized military strikes against the Assad regime in Syria and has repeatedly called out Russia’s actions on that front. We’ve also exported energy to our allies in eastern Europe.”
Summarizing, she said: “Look, I think you named off one or two things. It is without dispute that this administration and this president have done a number of things to be tough on Russia.”
The U.S. intelligence community determined that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win, a finding that Trump has resisted or downplayed. The White House announced a new wave of sanctions against Russian businessmen, officials, and companies Friday — but despite a strongly worded statement saying he was “standing up to Russia’s malign activities” relating to the election and Russian foreign policy, Trump’s Twitter feed was silent.
