U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley may have suffered “momentary confusion” on Sunday when she incorrectly announced that the U.S. Treasury Department would further sanction Russia, chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow told CNN on Tuesday.
Haley’s statement on CBS’s weekend Face the Nation program that Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin would announce sanctions Monday, was later corrected by Trump administration officials.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday morning, “We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, there was still no announcement from the Treasury Department on additional sanctions on Russia over Syria and chemical weapons.
Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow told CNN on Tuesday that Haley “got ahead of the curve” on potential additional Russia sanctions.
Haley had stated definitively that the sanctions “will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons use.”
The chief economic advisor complimented Haley’s job performance, but added that in this case she may have been confused about the sanctions. “There might have been some momentary confusion about that,” he said.
Kudlow definitively said “no,” when asked if the administration was confused on the sanctions, “I think the issue here is we have a set of sanctions, and additional sanctions are under discussion but haven’t been determined.”
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.