WASHINGTON – In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown,” U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussed the upcoming vote on the Senate Ukraine bill today that he co-authored and said the U.S. should begin to implement sanctions against Russian banks to “turn up the volume” on the Putin regime.
“[Y]ou don’t want to throw the kitchen sink on the front end and not have anything left, otherwise Putin has nothing to lose. On the other hand, I do think that our response has been timid. And I would like to see some greater sectorial responses…There are three, four banks [in Russia], if we were to sanction them, would send incredible shock waves through their economy,” said Corker. “I think [Putin’s] calculating, again, is he going to pay a big price if he goes in or not?... I'm afraid that we’re sounding and acting slightly timid right now. We need to turn the volume up.”
Senator Corker also responded to recent polling indicating 57 percent of Americans oppose the president’s handling of the crisis in Ukraine.
“I think what overall Americans are seeing in these numbers is that the administration has created an air of permissiveness all around the world, an air of weakness…and I think Americans are responding to that,” said Corker.
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