From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, Congress revolts and approves sanctions against Russia.

The press secretary quits. The White House looks to discredit the special prosecutor investigating the President.

And the President says he has complete power to pardon family, aides, and may even himself.

Making sense of a busy few days at the White House.

It's Monday, July 24th.

The House and Senate have agreed to a deal that could send a new bill to the President's desk before the end of the month.

It would slap Russia with new sanctions and give Congress veto power over easing sanctions against Moscow.

Glenn Thrasher, let's start with the news over the weekend that Congress has agreed on legislation to punish Russia for its interference in the election.

And comes despite lobbying by the White House to water down sanctions on Russia.

What was the controversy around that with the White House?

Look, Michael, it's not at all clear that the President wants to punish Russia anymore.

We had that second undisclosed meeting at the G20 in Hamburg in which it appears that the President and Vladimir Putin talked about a lot of things.

But the President emerged, again, really totalling the softest line on Moscow, of anybody in his administration.

And it wasn't at all clear until this weekend that the House and Senate were really willing to go hard on Russia.

So this, I wouldn't say, is a rebuke to the President, but it is very clearly another example of policy being made on the hill as opposed to being made in the West Wing.

Look, the administration is supportive of being tough on Russia, particularly in putting these sanctions in place.

On Sunday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House was likely to sign on with that.

And it clearly wasn't something the President and his team thought was prudent to battle on.

So I think they are going to go along with Congress. And we support where the legislation is now. We'll continue working with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia until the situation in Ukraine is fully resolved.

And it certainly isn't right now.

So the President will sign that bill. That's a little news.

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