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Next US House foreign affairs chief vows to check Trump, warns Russia
WASHINGTON, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The incoming head of the US House
Foreign Affairs Committee warned Thursday of election-related sanctions
against Russia and vowed oversight of Donald Trump’s diplomacy, which he said
had made Americans “laughingstocks.”
Representative Eliot Engel, who is the presumptive next chairman of the
committee after Democrats triumphed in November 6 elections, vowed the new
Congress would question the executive branch, a constitutional role he said
the Republicans neglected for fear of irritating Trump.
In an interview with AFP in his House office, decorated with pictures of
him meeting leaders from Nelson Mandela to the Dalai Lama and namecards of
himself in myriad alphabets, the 30-year congressional veteran from New York
said he remained outraged at Russia’s actions in the 2016 elections.
Engel said the Democratic-led House is ready to punish Russia if it is
determined that the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow, an allegation being
probed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“I think if we find out that for sure that we were compromised in our
elections, I think there should be, absolutely, sanctions,” Engel said.
“I think this is a whole new ballgame because the Congress that we’re
leaving was under a lot of pressure with the Republican majority to try to
leave the president alone — not to question, not to ask. And my attitude is
that my country is more important than my party,” he said.
The Trump administration has taken a number of actions against Russia
including expelling 60 officials over the attempted assassination with a
chemical agent of a Russian double agent in Britain.
But Trump has repeatedly denounced the Mueller investigation as a “witch
hunt” and sought warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
including at a summit in July in Helsinki where the US leader’s tepid public
appearance triggered wide rebuke.
Trump later backtracked by saying he had made a grammatical error and had
not meant to accept Putin’s denials of electoral interference.
– Turning US into ‘laughingstocks’ –
Engel, who will enjoy the power to call witnesses from the administration,
said he would seek answers on what happened behind closed doors in Helsinki
and during other diplomatic meetings by the Trump administration.
“The United States must continue to be the leaders of the free world and be
a country that people look up to. Right now they’re not looking up to us,” he
said.
“We’re kind of the laughingstocks. We’re here, we’re there, we’re all over
the place,” he said.
Alluding to Trump’s recent Twitter barrage against French President
Emmanuel Macron, Engel said: “Putin becomes our friend and the UK and Germany
and France become adversaries. Canada becomes an adversary. Mexico, all we
care about is building a wall. All these foolish things that sort of turn
everything on its side. We need to change that.”
He promised to press for a “more humane immigration policy,” voicing
outrage at the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from
immigrants who cross into the United States without authorization.
“The president’s almost obsession with Latin American people coming to this
country is just beyond belief,” Engel said. – Resisting aid cuts –
Engel, who recently met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, made clear he
would fight back if Trump again proposes sweeping reductions to the State
Department and US assistance budgets, noting that even the Republican
Congress disagreed with the cuts.
He said he would also use his power to explore the “all-time low” in morale
at the State Department, voicing alarm that long-term employees have felt
compelled to leave.
In contrast to many Democrats, Engel — a staunch supporter of Israel —
opposed the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated under former president Barack
Obama.
But Engel criticized Trump’s withdrawal from the accord still backed by
Europeans, saying the move isolated the United States rather than Iran.
He voiced fear that Trump was turning US foreign policy into a “hodgepodge”
without continuity.
If a country has “gone along with an agreement with us, and the next
president comes in and just upends it, what countries will continue to sign
these things with us? Because there is no security for them.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/0822 hrs