On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) stated that House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) supports designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and stated that one complexity of slapping this designation on Russia is that doing so would “forbid the purchase” of Russian energy by countries in Europe.
Host Nicolle Wallace asked, “Should Russia be designated a state sponsor of terror?”
Himes answered, “That’s a great — that’s a really good question. I will tell you one thing, we can make a little news here, and I don’t think she would object to me reporting on it, but the speaker of the House certainly said so four hours ago. Now, obviously, there [are] complexities here, right? When you designate somebody as a state sponsor of terrorism, you forbid the purchase, for example, of Germany buying gas. But I will tell you that the feeling in the room led by the speaker was that we need to, yes, designate them in whatever way is consistent with obviously not hurting the Europeans and their need for energy, but that really doesn’t hold back in any way on the sanctions that have to completely isolate and break the Russian economy for this to end.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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