JUST IN: Ted Cruz Rips Biden Over Ukraine, Blocks Shaheen Attempt To Confirm State Dept Nominees

senator from new hampshire mr president i ask that the quorum call be lifted without objection thank you mr president i come to the floor today to support a number of our nominees for ambassadors and positions within the state department as the chair of the european affairs subcommittee i am particularly concerned about the number of openings we have in europe for ambassadorial for ambassadors so i i want to support today mark getting steen again to be u.s ambassador to the european union kent logsdon to be u.s ambassador to moldova michael murphy to be u.s ambassador to bosnia and herzegovina claire cronin to be u.s ambassador to ireland denise bauer to be u.s ambassador to france and monaco and julissa renoso to be ambassador to spain and andorra so those are the ambassadors in europe that i wanted to raise this afternoon but i also want to raise concern about rufus gifford who has been nominated to be chief of protocol for the department of state as i said i'm chair of the european subcommittee and so i've had the opportunity to attend the hearings for these nominees and to see just how qualified they are and how important to american foreign policy they are earlier this week victoria nuland who was an undersecretary at the department of state testified in front of the senate foreign relations committee that the united states foreign diplomacy is operating at quarter power as a consequence of the numerous holds that have been placed on ambassadorial appointments by just a few of our republican colleagues i have some maps here that i think really very vividly demonstrate the consequences of this inaction in the senate the first you want to give me the first map first the first map shows where we have us ambassadors to europe so you can see anything blue is where we have ambassadors so on this map everything from spain to ukraine the united kingdom iceland ireland we have no u.s ambassadors approved in those countries and compare that to what russia and china have in terms of their diplomatic ability in europe this gold color are russian ambassadors countries where russia has their ambassadors virtually every country in europe red is where china has its ambassadors virtually every country in europe and again in the united states our ambassadors in europe it's basically empty finland sweden norway spain france germany poland ireland the eu we are desperately in need of ambassadors because right now we have very little presence in europe and this is happening at a time when we know there are significant challenges taking place in europe particularly in ukraine where russia is threatening to invade ukraine its sovereign territory again and where we need if we're going to be successful in responding to russia where we need to take a unified approach among our allies we need to be working with the eu with nato with all of our european allies and yet in most of the countries where we need to be working we don't have ambassadors and we don't have ambassadors because of opposition from just a few of our republican colleagues and i see senator cruz on the floor so i know that he's going to be here to object to my effort to move these but this is the impact of what's happening as the result of your holds senator cruz we can't put our national security in the hands of those people who don't have the status of ambassadors we know that our embassies are doing a great job in all of those countries they're working hard but it makes a difference to have someone who's been approved by the senate who's been nominated by the president who has the rank of ambassador and you know as i think about the challenges that are facing this country i can't think of anything that is more harmful to our foreign policy than deliberately hampering this country's ability to advance american interests on the international stage i want to say a few words about each of these nominees before i move for unanimous consent and again i'd like to begin with mark gittenstein who's already served our nation before he was the u s ambassador to romania he has spent over 25 years working on energy issues and as we think about the negotiations that are happening around energy and nordstrom 2 in particular which i know is a concern for senator cruz because it's a concern that i have we don't have an ambassador to the eu at the table for those discussions and mr getting gittenstein's nomination is critically important in responding to russia's weaponization of gas flows to europe and strengthening the transatlantic alliances we face escalating aggression from russia and similarly kent logsdon's nomination as ambassador to moldova couldn't come at a more critical moment where russia is again using energy there as a weapon maya sandhu the newly elected pro-eu pro-reform president there has every intention of steering moldova the poorest country in europe toward a better path and she's looking west to do that but of course she's already faced pressure from putin and his cronies who have threatened to weaponize gas flows into moldova we can't allow moldova to become the next ukraine or the next georgia and we can only prevent that by conveying strong u.s leadership to support its pro-european aspirations i also want to say a few words on michael murphy's nomination as ambassador to bosnia and herzegovina america played a critical role in bringing peace to bosnia through the dayton accords but we're seeing now that peace and stability in bosnia unity and devos in bosnia are under increasing attack earlier today i had excuse me i had a chance to meet with the bosnian foreign minister and i am seriously concerned by the deteriorating political situation there it requires an expert career diplomat like michael murphy to provide the commanding leadership to help bosnia through this moment the same is true in ireland my allergies are getting the best of me today cronin's nomination as ambassador to ireland is not just a symbolic gesture to a long-standing ally of the united states peace in northern ireland is hanging by a thread as the uk ireland and the eu handle the fallout from brexit i was concerned by the release of a report on tuesday which indicated that the paramilitary gangs embedded in northern ireland's divided communities pose and i quote a clear and present danger of violence fueled by post-brexit tensions by stalling our confirmation of miss cronin we risk tarnishing our legacy and fostering peace in northern ireland through the good friday agreement and of course denise bauer's nomination to france is necessary as the country prepares for national elections next year these elections have significant implications for our bilateral relationship in addition to the role that france will play in the eu and nato similarly julissa reynoso's nomination to spain requires swift confirmation spain will host the madrid summit next year where nato will elect the next secretary general and finalize the strategic concept what happens in nato is critical to america's national security and we want to have an ambassador on the ground there who can monitor what's going on with those talks in addition to the other officials we need to send finally ambassador rufus gifford has been nominated to be the chief of protocol for the department of state he previously served as our ambassador to denmark where queen where the queen there acknowledged him for his meritorious service to the kingdom of denmark his background and service will make him an excellent chief of protocol and we urgently need him in place to assist secretary blinken combined these nominations are all critical to immediate challenges facing our national security interests so with that in mind mr president i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22 the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations executive calendars number 320 440 447 448 450 454 and 519 that the senate vote on the nominations on block without intervening action or debate but the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate resume legislative session the senator from texas reserving the right to object you know in washington there's always political rhetoric that goes around the senator from new hampshire just moments ago described the embassies in europe that are missing ambassadors and she said they're missing ambassadors because of republican objections and she highlighted in particular ukraine mr president i'd like to point out there's some irony in her doing so because actually the reason there is no ambassador in ukraine is because of one thing and one thing only president biden has not nominated anybody to serve as ambassador to ukraine we're in december of the first year of his presidency and biden has yet to name an ambassador and so there are no republican holds there are no republican objections to an ambassador that biden has not even named in addition there are multiple ambassadors that have been named that the senate foreign relations committee has yet to hold a hearing on and for every one of those nominees on whom there hasn't been a hearing again there are no republican objections it is simply the senate democrats have failed to move forwards with hearings but there are a number of nominees who've been nominated and who've had hearings on whom i have hopes and we're here today once again because the democrats in this chamber have been unwilling to do the one thing that would stop vladimir putin from potentially invading ukraine which is sanctioning the nordstrom 2 pipeline and making sure that it never becomes fully operational now senator shaheen along with every other senator in this chamber knows exactly why i have holds on these nominees right now as we speak over a hundred thousand russian troops are massed on the border of ukraine waiting to invade and it is joe biden's fault because it is a direct consequence of president biden's surrender to vladimir putin on nordstream 2. for those watching at home asking what is nordstrom 2 it's a pipeline being constructed from russia to germany to carry natural gas gas putin is building nordstrom 2 to go around ukraine because right now russian gas gets to europe through ukraine putin didn't just wake up one day and decide to invade ukraine he's wanted to invade ukraine for years he did it in 2014 but he stopped short of a full invasion because he needed to use ukrainian energy infrastructure to transport russian gas to the european market ukraine's energy infrastructure is their insurance policy against a russian invasion nordstrom 2 is all about putin building an alternative avenue to get russian gas to europe so if nordstream 2 comes online it leaves ukraine exposed to russian aggression just two years ago we had a bipartisan consensus in the senate that we needed to stop nordstrom 2. now senator shaheen knows that well because she and i authored the legislation together she and i worked together to get the support of democrats and republicans in the senate and the support of democrats and republicans in the house and the crew shaheen legislation sanctioning nordstrom 2 passed both houses of congress overwhelmingly and was signed into law and the cruz shaheen legislation worked marvelously well so well that putin stopped construction of nordstrom 2 the day that president trump signed our legislation into law not even a week later not a month later the very day that our sanctions were signed into law it was an incredible bipartisan national security victory that we won together and that victory continued for over a year for over a year nordstrom 2 laid dormant on the bottom of the ocean dead until unfortunately joe biden became president almost from the moment of election day biden and the incoming administration began projecting weakness to russia and putin and to understand just how much that message was received joe biden was sworn in as president on january 20th 2021. putin began building the nordstream 2 pipeline again on january 24th 2021 four days after biden was sworn in in the senate i introduced legislation again on the senate foreign relations committee that passed in the senate foreign relations committee in this senate with overwhelming bipartisan support to sanction nordstream 2 yet again but this summer the biden white house made a political decision to surrender completely to putin on nordstrom 2. and president biden waived the sanctions on nordstream 2. he did so overruling the recommendations of his own state department that argued this protects u.s national security interests this stands up to russia this protects the biden white house didn't care about any of that overruled it all and then unfortunately senate democrats lost their willingness to hold biden to account this is an issue on which democrats and republicans are agreed on the substance but it can be difficult to stand up to a president of your own party and on nordstrom 2 senate democrats have not been willing to do so they were eager to do so when donald trump was in the white house but when a democrat was in the white house suddenly their willingness to stand up to the president evaporated and so the holds that i have placed are directly in order to try to force joe biden and kamala harris to follow the law and stand up to russia and stand up to putin so i will offer my colleague senator shaheen a deal that i've offered many times to the white house to the state department to the treasury department to senate democrats a deal that if we as the senate will impose sanctions on nordstream 2. katz of sanctions yet another russia sanctions bill that both senator shaheen and i voted for that we both advocated and supported and that the biden administration is refusing to apply if the senate will impose those sanctions i will happily enthusiastically lift my holds on these nominees and senator shaheen can take her map of europe and color in all of those countries we can do that right now by doing the right thing substantively and by the way this is the one step which has a real possibility of stopping a russian invasion of ukraine this past weekend the biden administration declassified their own internal projections that an invasion is imminent it could happen as soon as january or february and if we see russian tanks in the streets of kiev it will be because joe biden surrendered to putin and senate democrats weren't willing to hold into account i hope that's not the case we could act right now to sanction nordstrom 2 to stop the pipeline from being operational to stop putin and the soldiers at the border to prevent the invasion and to clear these ambassadorial nominees that my democratic colleagues want accordingly i ask unanimous consent that the banking committee be discharged from further consideration of s-3322 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table is it the right to object yes is there an objection senator from new hampshire reserving the right to object my colleague and i agree on our opposition to nordstrom 2 but i'm not looking at it despite your accusations through the same partisan lens that you are senator cruz and i would go back i think you threw out a lot of red herrings in your initial objection there one of which was to suggest that i said that um you had a hold on our ambassador to ukraine and and i actually agree with you i think this administration needs to appoint that ambassador to ukraine eight months ago and if you agree with me right now then will you agree that you will not put a hold on the ukraine nomination once we get it if we get it within the next couple of weeks before the end of this year and i'll just i'll ask you to think about that for a minute because i do think we need to have an ambassador there and that's certainly on my list of places in europe where we need ambassadors but i think the bigger question now you suggest that the mere action of sanctioning nordstrom 2 would be enough to deter putin in his ambitions in ukraine sadly i think that is a simplistic analysis of the situation that we're in because the biggest deterrent we can provide right now to what putin is thinking about is to let him know that we are united with our allies in europe on our opposition to any action he might take in ukraine that we are united with our nato allies that we are united with our european allies and unfortunately one of those major allies is germany and i don't think it would be good for the unity message that we need to give to putin to at this point sanction nordstrom 2 because i think the germans are going to come to that conclusion on their own they have a new administration they have a new administration that has issued some contracts what they call contracts and developing their coalition government that have a very different tone with respect to how they're talking about russia and china for that matter and so i think it's more prudent i also have real concerns about the current legislation on nordstrom 2 but i think it's more prudent for us to continue to work with our allies to make clear to putin what's at stake and nordstrom 2 is at stake if he goes into ukraine there's no doubt about that and right now as we know the certification of the pipeline has been delayed and it's been delayed until well after the first of the year we're not sure what the timetable is but it's going to be sometime after the spring and so i i just have a different came to a different conclusion than you did senator crews about the best way to deter putin at this point i think it is to work together it's not to poke a finger in our most prominent ally on this issue and suggest that we create those divisions which is what you would like to do and and i think furthermore that the efforts to undermine our appointment of ambassadors and our ability for the state department to conduct foreign policy further weakens our ability to negotiate with putin and it sends a message about divisions within congress that is really not helpful it's not helpful as putin is watching us it's not helpful as china is watching us so you and i just have fundamentally different views of how best to address this issue and how we can achieve the goal that we both want which is to end nordstrom 2 and reduce europe's dependence on russia and to prevent putin from invading ukraine so mr president i object objection is heard is there objection to the original request mr president the senator from texas reserving the right to object you know i would note that senator shaheen said it was simplistic to say that sanctioning nordstrom 2 would stop a russian invasion of ukraine and in that senator shaheen may well be right i cannot guarantee that nordstrom 2 sanctions would prevent an invasion of ukraine what we do know is it has in the past what we do know is that in 2014 when putin invades invaded ukraine in the crimea that he stopped short of a full invasion because he needed the ukrainian energy infrastructure and we also know that during the more than a year in which the crew shaheen sanctions were in effect and nordstrom 2 was dead that putin didn't mass troops in preparation for an invasion so we know that it has been effective and we also know although i cannot promise that sanctioning nordstrom 2 would prevent an invasion we know the obverse is true which is that allowing nordstrom 2 to go online and become operational would invite an invasion senator shaheen noted that the certification process is expected to be concluded in january or february of next year i would note mr president that according to the biden administration's own documents the russian invasion is expected potentially in january or february of next year i do not believe it is coincidental that the instant putin can turn on the switch of nordstrom 2 is when the tanks are preparing to invade if the senate democrats continue their partisan blockade of sanctions they are inviting a russian invasion senator shaheen also said let me ask you a question i would happily consent to a colloquy i just want to correct what i said because i think you mischaracterized it what i said was we know that the certification has been delayed until after the first of the year and it's not likely to happen until after the spring which is well later than january february so i just want to correct for the record that and and i think if you look at what's being proposed you'll find that it's even later than that well i will accept that correction i don't believe you said the spring i think you said after the first of the year but i don't i went on to say after the spring as well so i do not think it is coincidental that the timing of nordstrom 2 and the timing of an invasion are intertwined now senator shane also suggested the way to prevent an invasion is to be united with our allies you know i actually agree with that um i would point out that this summer when president biden waved the sanctions on nordstrom 2. you know what our allies said ukraine and poland put out a joint statement i would encourage you to read the joint statement from the foreign ministers of ukraine and poland because they denounced the biden administration for waiving sanctions on nordstrom 2 and you know what ukraine told us that waving those sanctions makes a military attack on ukraine much more likely that's what poland told us senator shaheen knows that she's spoken with the governments of both countries i am sure i've spoken with the governments of both countries and they adamantly believe that waiving those sanctions is a major force increasing the likelihood of a russian invasion you know one of the things that is striking in the debates we've had in nordstrom 2 throughout the course of all of this we have yet to see a single democrat stand up and defend the biden administration's waiver of sanctions on nordstrom 2 on the merits they all know it's wrong the only arguable benefit that the biden white house claims is they earn some good will with angela merkel angela merkel had been the leader of germany but as senator shaheen noted she is no longer the leader of germany the german people voted her party out of office and the new administration is expected to oppose nordstrom 2. so we literally have a situation in which the biden white house surrendered to russia gave a multi-billion dollar pipeline to finance the russian military abandoned our ukrainian allies and did it all in search of goodwill from a leader who's no longer in office you want us to be united the european parliament voted to condemn nordstream 2. the last vote was roughly 500 to 50 to condemn nordstream 2. you want to be united how about we stand with the 500 and not the 50. if senate democrats would not object to my motion we would be standing with the whole of europe and we would be united in a final observation senator shaheen decried the holds as an effort to undermine ambassadors i would note that i have offered here as i have offered many many times as i've offered in writing as far back as august of this year to lift the holds if we adopt policy that actually stands up to russia senator shaheen says her changed position is not partisan i understand why one would want to say that but her substantive argument is now she doesn't want us to disagree with germany well when senator shaheen and i authored cruz shaheen in 2019 when we authored the second cruise shaheen in 2020 when we passed both of them we were disagreeing with germany the german government was very unhappy with it but it was the right thing for american national security nothing has changed and by the way when there was a republican president the white house i repeatedly took on the trump administration and pressed them on this issue unfortunately the only thing that's changed one thing has changed the letter behind the name of the person in the white house now it's a d not an r and all the democrats who gave speeches on nordstrom 2 suddenly we hear crickets that needs to change i object objection is hurt i just want to clarify a couple of things that senator cruz said one is that the nordstrom 2 pipeline was was completed despite those sanctions because what russia did was to employ their own ships with gas prom and complete the nordstrom 2 pipeline despite the sanctions that we had threatened and it was in fact not until right before he left office that the trump president trump actually invoked some of those sanctions so um again i i think the response has been somewhat simplistic in terms of what what we really need to do now to address what's happening with russia and ukraine and i certainly applaud our allies poland and ukraine but i think we need to stand united with many more of our allies in europe in order to deter putin that the united states poland and ukraine probably are not going to do it on our own and we need all of us to act together also you know maybe if we had our ambassador to the eu he could have reported to the senate what the vote was in the eu about nordstrom 2 but because he's still on hold we haven't had a chance to hear from him i would also point out that at this time in the first year of the trump administration 44 of his ambassadors had been confirmed compared to by for the biden administration and you know it seems like there ought to be a number of things we can agree on and and by the way there was going to be a vote on nordstrom 2 before some of your colleagues objected to the process under the defense bill if if that hadn't happened we would have actually had a vote on nordstrom 2 and we could see what the view of this body is but unfortunately it was because of those objections that we didn't get that vote so i i think again if you take if you look at our ability to conduct our foreign policy and to be effective against vladimir putin one of the most important things we can do is to put in place our diplomats so that they can help advance american foreign policy and what's happening right now in addition to those people you have on hold we have over 50 state department nominees on hold because of your objections and the objections of some of your other colleagues and again i don't think that's where most of the members of your caucus are i think most of them while they may not agree with all these ambassadors they would agree that we should go forward and allow our foreign policy to move forward with diplomats so i think i understand your objection to nordstrom 2 as i said i've objected to nordstrom 2. but i think at this point what we need to do is look at how can we conduct our foreign policy in a way that best puts pressure on vladimir putin and i just disagree with you that that's going to do it right now so with that mr president i yield before the senator from texas a brief moment of clarification several of the facts that i said in my remarks are undisputed because they're undisputable number one it is a fact that putin stopped construction of nordstream 2 the day the exact day that president trump signed the cruz shaheen sanctions into law that day and the pipeline was dormant for over a year now senator shaheen said well putin ultimately went back to building the pipeline even with the sanctions on the books that's true after joe biden was sworn into office putin began building the pipeline on january 24th 2021 four days after biden was sworn in not a foot of the pipeline was built between december of 2019 when the sanctions were signed into law and january 24th putin began building the pipeline because biden telegraphed his surrender secondly senator shaheen suggested that if only we had an ambassador we might know what the european parliament did thankfully mr president we have these magic little devices that let us cross the atlantic in the twinkle of an eye so we actually know that the european parliament voted roughly 500 to 50 to condemn nordstrom 2. so if we want to stand united with europe not just ukraine and poland europe we want to stand up to nordstrom too and a final point i will say to senator shaheen perhaps is a moment of a word of encouragement which is i have right now pending an offer with the democratic leadership to lift a number of these holds a significant number of these holes if the democratic leadership will agree to a vote on nordstrom 2 sanctions we're engaged in productive negotiation on that issue and if the democrats cease obstruction we can have that vote and a number of these holds can be lifted but that ultimately is going to be a decision for senate democrats i yield the floor

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 264,604

Keywords: Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, President Biden

Id: sXKFnuRt9Wk

Length: 38min 32sec (2312 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 09 2021