Does the U.S. Have the Political Will to Sustain Sanctions?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: The president has basically framed the sanctions on Russia, the help to Ukraine as a necessary war effort to preserve our — quote — “way of life,” to preserve democracy. And that’s happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. Does — when we try to figure out whether he’s going to keep and you all are going to keep up this — these tough measures against Russia, despite the pain it’s causing, do you think he’s bringing the American people along enough on that issue? Will the political will remain to defeat, as you — as everybody says, Putin must be defeated or this plan must be defeated, his plan in Ukraine.

JARED BERNSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: The answer to that question is a firm yes. Not only is the political will there. It is extremely strong in this president. I think you hear the passion in the words that you played at the beginning of this segment. But it is a political will, something kind of rare these days, that crosses the aisle. It’s bipartisan. If you look at polls, the American people broadly support, at quite high levels, these kinds of interventions, because they recognize that — and the president has been clear about this. We’re going to do everything we can to try to insulate households from some of the pain and pressure particularly around commodity prices, energy, we have talked about, food from this conflict. But we cannot 100 percent insulate everyone. There has been and will be pressures coming from that. And the American people, I think, at least if you read the polling data, seem clear that they’re — not only do we have the political will here, but I think they have the — kind of the fairness, the spiritual will to pursue this — these actions against the horrific facts on the ground that we’re learning about in Ukraine.