[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Russia

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I have spoken throughout these last several 
days about how the Nord Stream 2 pipeline--the Biden-Putin pipeline--
runs counter to everything that the Biden administration professes to 
stand for, and, indeed, what much of the Democratic Party has been 
insisting for the last half decade are the most important issues of the 
country.
  We, of course, spent 4 years, during the Trump Presidency, listening 
to Democrats say, ``Russia, Russia, Russia,'' over and over and over 
again. It was a newfound discovery. Some of us are old enough to 
remember Barack Obama turning to Mitt Romney in the 2012 Presidential 
election when Mitt Romney was advocating for strength in dealing with 
Russia and for taking on Putin, and some of us remember Obama looking 
at Mitt Romney and saying:

       [Mitt], the 1980s called. They want their foreign policy 
     back.

  That was in 2012, when the Democrats thought it was passe to stand up 
to Russia.
  Then 2016 happened, and Donald Trump was elected President. Suddenly, 
the Democratic Party got religion. Suddenly, Russia was bad. Now, I 
thought Russia was bad before. I thought Russia was bad when Trump was 
President. And I think Russia is bad now. I don't like dictatorial 
thugs like Vladimir Putin, who is a KGB thug.
  But, interestingly, for our friends on the Democratic side of the 
aisle, their outrage against Russia is situational. It applies only in 
the situation that a Republican is in the White House. When a Democrat 
is in the White House--when Joe Biden is there--suddenly, Putin is 
hunky-dory. Suddenly, Democrats don't have much of a problem with Joe 
Biden defying Federal law, ignoring Federal law, and giving a 
multibillion-dollar gift to Putin.
  Suddenly, the Democrats have given all of these speeches on Russia, 
who passed CAATSA. I talked earlier about CAATSA, the legislation that 
imposes mandatory sanctions on Russia to stop a President who refuses 
to impose those sanctions. Well, Joe Biden is in defiance of CAATSA. Do 
you see a single Democrat standing up, saying: Mr. President, obey 
CAATSA? No. They are whining that the deputy assistant under secretary 
of whatchamacallit has not been confirmed yesterday, and, clearly, the 
world is going to come to an end without a deputy assistant of 
whatchamacallit.
  If our Democratic colleagues believed their rhetoric of the last 4 
years, we would see Democrats stand up with me and say, ``Joe Biden's 
multibillion-dollar gift to Putin is a mistake,'' but they are not.
  One of the ironies, in addition to the ``Russia, Russia, Russia'' 
thing--and the truth of the matter--is most of the Democrats never 
believed Russia, Russia, Russia. If you go back to the Soviet Union, if 
you go back to the Reagan administration, the Democrats had spent 
decades as apologists for Soviet Communists, as apologists for Russian 
dictators. But for 4 years, I have got to say that our Democratic 
colleagues can give a good speech. They sure sounded genuine when they 
said, ``Russia, Russia, Russia.'' But if they believed those words, 
then they would look at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and they would 
say, ``Russia, Russia, Russia.''
  By the way, they didn't like Donald Trump's rhetoric on Russia, and 
by the way, I didn't like a lot of the things President Trump said on 
Russia. I wish his rhetoric had been stronger, but it is worth noting 
that Trump had the courage to call out Germany for Nord Stream 2. Trump 
had the courage to impose sanctions under the bipartisan sanctions 
legislation we passed into law. The Cruz-Shaheen legislation passed in 
2019, and the second wave of the Cruz-Shaheen bipartisan legislation 
passed in 2020. President Trump imposed. What did Joe Biden do? Waived 
it. What did Joe Biden do? Ignored the law. What did Joe Biden do? He 
gave a multibillion-dollar gift to Putin.
  So, if any Democrat meant a word they said about Russia, we have got 
to see them standing here. You will note the Democratic side of the 
floor is largely empty.
  But not only is Joe Biden's rhetoric and the Democrats' rhetoric on 
Russia not matched by their action, but we also know that Biden's 
actions don't meet the Democrats' rhetoric on climate.