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U.S. Sen. Darline Graham said she has not yet raised concerns with President Donald Trump about a Russia sanctions waiver that goes against legislation she championed, despite sharing a campaign stage and plane flight with the president this week.
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Trump suspended multiple economic sanctions on Russia late last week, a knock to a bill named for longtime South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, Darline Graham’s late brother.
The executive order, issued by Trump on Friday, would block several sanctions on Russia included in a law Darline Graham has championed as one of her achievements in her short time in Congress.
But Graham has not spoken with Trump about the waiver yet, the senator said Thursday, despite previously saying she would support keeping economic pressure on Russia.
Graham appeared with Trump at a rally near Clemson University Wednesday, where he encouraged South Carolina attendees to vote for the senator. Graham is running in a competitive race against Democratic nominee Annie Andrews. Polls show a potentially close race between the two major party candidates.
Graham previously told an Associated Press reporter she would probably speak with the president while he was in South Carolina about the executive order. But Thursday, Graham said she did not have the opportunity to talk with Trump about the economic sanctions waiver while he was in the Palmetto State.
“I did see President Trump last night,” Graham told reporters. “There were several other people around, so I have not had a chance to speak with him specifically about that. We did talk about the rally and how great the turnout was, what a positive, wonderful night we had at the rally. We talked about some other issues concerning South Carolina.”
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Graham said she would still speak with the president about the sanctions waiver if given an opportunity. She also flew with Trump back to Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening but said there were other people on the plane, and the sanctions discussion should be “private.”
The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act passed the U.S. Senate in August and House of Representatives in September. Graham frequently used the bill’s success as a credential for her effectiveness as a lawmaker while campaigning for a full term.
But she, and other Republican allies, did not bring up the legislation in their speeches during the Trump rally Wednesday while trying to gain support from Upstate voters.
The new law is intended to put economic pressure on Russia and Iran with sanctions. It also gives the president the power to place tariffs on countries that buy energy from Russia. Trump signed the bill into law in September, and Graham celebrated its passage.
“As you all know, my late brother Lindsey was committed to achieving a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine,” Graham said in a press conference in September. “Lindsey believed this bill, which he worked on for well over a year, would help achieve that goal through squeezing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin economically and forcing his customers to reevaluate the relationship with Russia.”
Lindsey Graham helped negotiate economic sanctions on Russia intended to end the war in Ukraine before his July 11 death. The late senator was a defender of the U.S.’s international allies and returned from a trip to Ukraine shortly before his death.
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