Richard Blumenthal

Mr. President, I am here, thinking about all the Americans who are working on manufacturing plant assembly lines, of all the Americans who are teaching our kids in school or who are patrolling our streets as police or who are working in our hospitals--all of the hard-working Americans who are just working to get by, to make ends meet, to know whether they can afford another $20 or $30 at the supermarket.

Then to think of Donald Trump's making $6 million per day last year-- a total of $2.2 billion just in the first year of his Presidency--I don't think there is a single person in America who thinks that he earned that money. And how could he? He is supposed to be devoting every waking moment to the public interest of the United States--to keeping us safe and our Nation secure.

The fact is that it was the result of corruption as $1.4 billion of it came from crypto. The point of this legislation is, essentially, to end that corruption. We will vote tomorrow on a crypto bill that is, sadly and tragically, riddled with loopholes that enable him to continue this same self-dealing and self-enrichment.

The failure to stand up to the President, I think, is going to be on our Republican colleagues because this amendment--ethics requirements for digital assets--is a sham; it is a charade. If nothing else, Republicans should take a stand and say: In crypto legislation that is supposed to stop wrongdoing, lawlessness, and the funding of terrorist organizations and money laundering, now is the time to also impose a strong conflict-of-interest rule--the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act.

Think of it for a moment, the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act, it bans the President and the Vice President and their immediate families from owning or controlling banks.

When I came to the U.S. Senate, if you had told me I would be supporting an Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act because it would be necessary to stop corruption and because the President would be twisting and ignoring and bending norms and precedents of the Presidency, I would have said: That would never happen in the United States of America.

But President Trump has been clear: There is no ethical line separating his role as President from his family's businesses. It is that simple.

Corruption has become the family business.

After President Trump issued an Executive order to assert control over the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, his control over that body--which approves bank charters--surprise, Trump's crypto company, World Liberty Financial, applied for a bank charter.

And, no surprise, on August 14, 2026, World Liberty Financial was granted conditional approval for a national bank charter.

Corruption has consequences. It has costs. That bank charter is worth millions--maybe hundreds of millions--to World Liberty Financial, but it will enable World Liberty Financial to exploit and take advantage of consumers that will cost them money out of those hard-earned wages that they make.

In fact, Donald Trump made $1.4 billion, including 636 million from his meme coin, but nearly a million Americans lost billions of dollars--more than $3 billion--while he was making his huge profits.

Corruption has consequences. It has costs. When the President of the United States is dealing with the Emiratis, who have bought a 49- percent share for billions of dollars in one of his enterprises, and then the Emiratis receive approval for the purchase of chips that have been refused them or defense equipment that is hugely valuable to them, it threatens our national security.

And when the President's son or his family go around the world establishing resorts, making deals, there is always a quid pro quo. There is always a quid to the quo. There is no free lunch. Our security is compromised. There are costs to our taxpayers.

And that plane that was supposedly a gift is already costing us hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention our being beholden to the Qatar Government. There is no free lunch.

After Donald Trump, Jr., became a partner of the venture capital firm 1789 Capital, its assets ballooned to $3 billion as its portfolio companies rapidly received lucrative government contracts.

Those government contracts impact the taxpayers when they are sole source, when they are granted without proper review and scrutiny and oversight of what the costs will be to taxpayers. There is no free lunch.

So this measure is not only important, it is necessary. And I have to say, the consequences of corruption are

measured not only in dollars and cents but also in our moral standing around the world.

Just this morning, ProPublica reported that Donald Trump, Jr.'s, lavish wedding in the Caribbean was, in effect, heavily bankrolled by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. His name is Umar Kremlev.

Umar Kremlev is also involved in an organization that reeducates Ukrainian children who have been abducted.

I have been to Ukraine 11 times. On a number of those trips, I have met with children who have been abducted and kidnapped by Vladimir Putin. It is the reason he has been judged and charged as a war criminal. And one of his henchmen, apparently, is Umar Kremlev in reeducating those children so that they will forget their past, forget their language, forget their culture, forget their religion.

This is truly criminal. And Kremlev has paid likely hundreds of thousands of dollars for Donald Junior's lavish wedding. He is in a photograph of the wedding party.

That picture haunts me. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. And the picture of a man who has, in effect, been complicit in abducting and reeducating children, separating them--and not just a few but literally tens of thousands, as many as 35,000, maybe 50,000 or more--separating them from their families. I wouldn't want to be caught on the same island with him, let alone having him rent the island for a wedding of a family member.

Let me put it another way: Those Americans who are working hard to make ends meet, wondering whether they can afford another $20 or $30 at the supermarket while Donald Trump averaged $6 million a day in 2025, ought to demand of all of us that we pass the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act.

It is the least we can do. It is a first step. And I hope that we will also pass a crypto measure that is worthy of this body and its name.

Mr. President, shortly, we will vote on the Russia sanctions bill as we have come to call it. I want to begin by thanking my colleagues for their overwhelming support for this measure, and in particular to thank Senators Shaheen, Britt, Wicker, Risch, Coons, Whitehouse, Durbin, and, of course, Senators Schumer and Thune. Their help has been invaluable as we reach this important moment.

Last week, with President Zelenskyy watching from the Gallery, this body sent a powerful message to Vladimir Putin and all who are supporting him with funding for his vicious, bloodthirsty, illegal war against the brave, free people of Ukraine.

Today, President Zelenskyy is watching from Ukraine, and Putin is watching from Moscow. I would like to think that Lindsey Graham is watching too. And I know how proud he would be of his sister today who has taken his place on the floor and has been such a profoundly strong and effective advocate for this bill.

Today, we say to the people of Ukraine: You are not alone. And we say to Vladimir Putin: You will not conquer Ukraine. You will not defeat these free, brave people who are turning tides against your bloodthirsty aggression.

Nearly 2 years ago, Lindsey Graham and I began working on this bill, but really the journey began with our first trip to Ukraine together some 4 years ago.

Robert Frost once said when he was asked how he began his poems, he said:

A poem begins with a lump in the throat . . .

Our journey toward this bill began with a lump in our throats and tears in our eyes when we visited Bucha, not long after the Russians were pushed out of that small town just kilometers away from President Zelenskyy's bunker, which we also visited on that trip just weeks after Ukraine succeeded in pushing them out.

We saw the mass grave where Putin's military shot innocent women and children in the back of their heads. We talked to Ukrainian troops who lost limbs, loved ones who lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We talked to children who were kidnapped by Putin, literally abducted and placed in education camps.

And on one of those long train rides--we took six or seven trips into Ukraine together--we began thinking about this bill to impose scorching, sledgehammer sanctions and tariffs on Russia to stop the flow of money fueling Putin's war machine, money that was essential to his slaughterous aggression against Ukraine.

And like one of those trains, the journey to this bill was filled with a lot of bumps, a lot of stops and starts, and through it all what sustained us, as much as anything, was Senator Graham's overwhelming sense of optimism, his sense of humor, his belief in freedom and democracy, his belief in America.

And so this bill is a tribute to him. We disagreed about many issues, he and I, and I could be on the receiving end of his anger, as well as his praise. But the partnership that we forged, I think is a lesson without exaggerating it to perhaps the people of America that, yes, we can work together and accomplish good things for the world.

One of Senator Graham's final acts as a Member of this body was to reach an accord with the White House on our behalf and secure the President's support. He died literally the next day.

I spoke to him shortly before his death, and I know as well as anyone that this Chamber--this body--will not be the same without him. We miss him, and this bill named in his honor carries on the work that he believed was so important.

It will impose scorching sanctions on the Russia war machine and the shadow fleet that sustains it. It will prevent critical resources from flowing to the Kremlin's coffers.

It will authorize the President to impose duties and penalties on the largest purchases of Russian crude oil and natural gas--punishing the profiteers for buying discounted energy products and pushing them to decrease purchases. It is a powerful deterrent against complicity in Putin's illegal war.

And it provides a powerful pressure point in stopping buyers of Russian oil and gas from continuing to provide the essential fuel for that war machine.

It will give the administration the tools it needs to punish anyone who aids Russia as they continue to evade United States sanctions and promote stronger, stricter enforcement of those sanctions.

For years, countries have been allowed to permit bad actors to broker deals and support the shadow fleet's movement all around the world. They have become fabulously rich, while preaching the need for peace. These countries will be exposed as facilitating evasion of sanctions, and it will help us end the war.

The goal is peace. We have the power to help end this war, and we cannot stand idly as a young, democratic nation desperately fights for its survival against a murderous dictator.

We know from history, appeasement is a failed hope, and hope is not a strategy. We cannot appease Putin in the hope that he will abandon his imperialist ambitions because history shows that he will not.

And his ambition doesn't end in Donbas or Luhansk. It reaches deep into Europe, and it threatens our national security and our allies' security. Yes, we need our allies, and they have stepped up to aid Ukraine in this war.

Appeasing Putin is a disservice to the brave men and women of our military

who are defending our freedom all around the globe because it puts them in greater risk if Putin thinks he can move against our NATO allies, and then we will be required to put our sons and daughters in harm's way.

For 4 years, Ukraine has refused to bow to Putin's will. They have beaten back wave after wave after wave of Russian attacks. Our military gave them maybe a few weeks, in 2022, to survive Putin's onslaught.

They pushed the Russians back in those weeks after the first wave of assault, and they have continued a brilliant campaign of using new technology that has amazed and awed the world, including our own military, which is learning from Ukraine about the use of drones and other unmanned weapons platforms.

Their ingenuity and determination are awe inspiring, even as their stockpiles of interceptors and other air defense run dry. And we must provide the kind of military defense aid--the interceptors, the PAC- 3s--or the Patriot system--or the THAAD platforms that are essential to defend the Ukrainian people who are enduring--night after night after night--missiles and drones killing civilians, aimed at schools, hospitals, malls, civilian targets.

Putin not only abducts children, he kills them in their beds as they sleep with missiles and drones that are aimed purposely at civilian targets to terrorize and intimidate the people of Ukraine, but they will not yield.

And today, they continue to stand as a beacon of hope and liberty, shining against the darkness. Today, we cannot provide all that military aid that they need, but we can take this step--a step to stand with the people of Ukraine and show that their fight is our fight.

I would like to close with some brilliant, rhetorical flourish, but I would rather just recall some of Senator Graham's last words to me.

He said: This is a big effing deal. We all did good.

Decorum prevents me on the Senate floor from saying what he actually said, but I would like to say--looking across the Chamber where he sat--that he is with us today and that he will be proud of what we are doing.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague from Alabama's strong support of this bill. She has been instrumental in our reaching this point, and I thank her and Senator Graham of South Carolina.

To state it really bluntly, Mr. President, this amendment kills the bill. It decimates the purpose of the bill, which has been the result of painstaking--sometimes painful--negotiations over months with the White House, with our colleagues here, with the U.S. Trade Representative, whom I also thank for his cooperation and assistance.

It would eliminate tariff provisions that have been narrowly constrained to the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas. It is not a broad, blunderbuss provision. It is narrowly targeted. And no secret, the two largest purchasers? Ninety percent, China and Russia.

So let's be real here. This narrowly targeted tariff provision is essential to the bill. The choice isn't between this bill with tariffs and a bill without tariffs. The choice is between this bill or no bill.

I oppose this amendment and urge my colleagues to vote no.

Vote on Amendment No. 6715

Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues in advance for their overwhelming bipartisan support for this bill that shows we can still work together for the right causes to accomplish the right results.

I want to particularly thank Senator Lindsey Graham and his courageous, effective sister Darline for their immensely important, even historic contribution to this bill.

Today, we say to Vladimir Putin: You will not conquer Ukraine.

We stand with the brave, free people of Ukraine. We need to provide them military assistance. We can't do that today, but we are providing the economic tools that are necessary to stop the major purchases of Russian oil and gas from fueling Putin's war machine.

President Zelenskyy has said to us from the beginning: Give us the tools; we will do the job.

Today, we give him an essential tool.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I yield the floor.