Washington: Republican Senator Thom Tillis said that President Donald Trump “may be” breaking the law with his Russian diesel deal, while Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso called it “leverage”, a week before Trump must decide whether to penalise major buyers of Russian oil.
The split among Republicans played out on two Sunday television shows, NBC’s Meet the Press and CBS’ Face the Nation.
Asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether Trump was breaking the 2022 law banning Russian oil imports, Tillis said, “I believe that he may be.”
“I do believe there’s a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law,” the North Carolina Republican added.
Tillis said the Senate vote on the sanctions bill named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham showed where lawmakers stood. “That was 86 votes, if I remember. That’s a universal position of the US Senate. And the president’s actions and his comments over the last 24 hours are the exact opposite of the intent of that bill,” he said.
He said the diesel agreement was “tarnishing Lindsey Graham’s efforts to try and get the sanctions bill through”.
Later on Sunday, Tillis joined six other senators, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, in a statement saying Trump’s decision “runs directly counter to that law” and that “The Administration must immediately reverse course.”
The other signatories were Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John Curtis, and Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden.
On CBS, host Margaret Brennan put the Graham law to Barrasso, who voted for it.
“I know you’ve got to make a decision by October 18th, at least the president does, about putting in place the powers you helped to give him to punish buyers of Russian oil. Doesn’t the president’s action make a mockery of that law you just passed?” she asked.
Barrasso defended Trump. “We passed that law to give the president the flexibility and the firepower to use another tool against Vladimir Putin,” he said.
“This is just another point of leverage for the president to use against Putin in an effort to get a long-term solution in that – in that part of the world,” he added.
Neither senator mentioned India. But the October 18 deadline Brennan cited matters directly to New Delhi.
Under Section 113 of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, signed on September 18, the President must within 30 days raise duties to “up to 100 percent” on goods from countries that were among the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas and that keep buying.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday that anyone in Congress who says the Graham law bars the diesel purchases is “wrong”.
The law allows the President to waive any duty after certifying to Congress that a waiver is in the US national interest. Section 113 counts only purchases of crude oil and natural gas, not refined products such as diesel, in deciding which countries face the tariffs.
(IANS)
