Dem
53
Ties
2
GOP
45
Congress put sanctions on Russia to block its sale of oil, which finances its war in Ukraine. Now, all of a sudden, Donald Trump wants to buy diesel fuel from Russia to help Republicans avert disaster in the midterms. Of course, this completely undermines the sanctions, making Democrats hopping mad.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called this "a deal with the devil" in an attempt by Trump to save his "flailing political fortunes." Schumer also tweeted: "This filthy deal will only aid and abet the same Putin who is helping the Iranians to target and try to kill American troops in the Middle East and who illegally and viciously invaded our ally Ukraine." Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) tweeted: "Lifting sanctions on Russia will only fuel Putin's war machine and prolong the conflict in Ukraine." Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) tweeted: "This poorly concealed attempt to mitigate the havoc caused by Trump's illegal war in Iran will only benefit the Chinese & Russian economies & lead to the slaughter of more innocents in Ukraine." Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) tweeted: "Infuriating—but this is what we warned anyone who would listen: Trump isn't the slightest bit trustworthy when it comes to Russia." Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) called the move "desperate." And there were many more.
And it was not only Democrats who lashed out at Trump. Some Republicans also did so. Former representative Mike Rogers, who is in a tight Senate race in Michigan, said: "You don't want to give that guy [Putin] an inch." Well, since Russia has been on the metric system for over 100 years, make that 2.54 cm. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that the diesel deal may well be illegal. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said: "It's a grave error by the president." Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) expressed his disapproval, but didn't go the last mile and condemn Trump. He is in a tight reelection race in Alaska.
In September, before he realized how bad the election forecast was, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which gave Trump extra authority to punish Russia for invading Ukraine. It was not intended to help Russia. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) tweeted: "The President should be using those authorities instead of allowing Russia to export diesel, rake in revenues, and continue its catastrophic war in Ukraine."
Some Republicans went beyond just ranting and tweeting. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said he will introduce a bill in the House banning all purchases of Russian oil. He said he has co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. He also said he will use a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill and further said he expects it to pass by a wide margin.
Oil analysts are skeptical that, even if the deal goes through, it will affect diesel prices much. If Russia diverts 500,000 metric tons of oil to the U.S. in November and 1 million metric tons in December, as Trump claims, the countries who would have otherwise gotten that oil are going to look elsewhere and prices may not change much. Also note that 1 million tons of oil is about 7 million barrels, or less than 2 days' worth of U.S. consumption. Is importing 2 days' worth of consumption going to have much effect? The U.S. price is tied to the world price and the world price is tied to world supply and demand. Unless more oil is put on the market, the price won't go down much. Russia can't easily ramp up production because Ukraine has been systematically attacking its refineries. Ukraine has been very clever about how it attacks the refineries. It targets the equipment used in the first stage of the refining process, the desalters. If they are destroyed, the entire refinery must shut down. Diesel shortages in Russia are so severe that in July, Putin banned diesel exports in order to save what was produced for domestic use. The result is it may be a while (and maybe never) before large volumes of Russian diesel arrive in America and prices drop. (V)