[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S424-S425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we recently passed the 1-year anniversary 
of President Biden's inauguration. It is a natural time for taking 
stock of the first year of his Presidency.
  In President Biden, we were supposed to get a leader--a leader at 
home and on the world stage. The grownups, we were told, were back in 
the room. But the truth of the matter is that President Biden's first 
year in office has been marked by a lack of leadership more than 
anything else.
  Again and again, President Biden has simply abdicated his 
responsibilities. Take perhaps the two defining domestic crises of the 
Biden Presidency: our inflation crisis and our border crisis. In both 
cases, the response of the President and his administration has by and 
large been to stick their fingers in their ears and pretend the crises 
don't exist. Sure, the President or his people make a gesture toward 
the problem every now and then, but mostly, you would be forgiven for 
thinking that neither the border crisis nor the inflation crisis was 
even on the President's radar.
  Migrants continue to pour across our southern border in massive 
numbers, creating a humanitarian, enforcement, and security nightmare. 
And the President? Well, he appears to believe that if he ignores the 
problem long enough, it will go away. When he does talk about 
immigration, it amounts to a green light to the cartels and traffickers 
to keep leading migrants to our borders. That is why I recently joined 
more than 100 lawmakers in requesting that the Department of Homeland 
Security's inspector general investigate the Biden administration's 
border failures.
  Between the President's rhetoric and his failure to take any 
meaningful action to address the influx of illegal immigration, it is 
no surprise that we saw more than half a million attempts to cross our 
southern border illegally in the current fiscal year's first 3 months 
alone--half a million.
  Meanwhile, American families are struggling with the worst inflation 
in 40 years--40 years. The last time inflation was this bad, ``E.T.'' 
was just premiering, and ``Return of the Jedi'' hadn't even come out 
yet. American families are struggling with huge increases in the price 
of the most basic necessities, from food to fuel. And the 
administration's response? Mostly crickets.
  Of course, President Biden hasn't just been largely ignoring this 
crisis; he actually helped create it. The so-called American Rescue 
Plan Act the Democrats passed and the President signed into law in 
March of last year helped produce the sky-high inflation we are 
experiencing. But instead of addressing the resulting crisis, the 
President has been focused on passing another massive government 
spending bill that would almost undoubtedly worsen our inflation 
problem. Yes, his solution to our inflation crisis is to double down on 
the strategy that helped produce so much inflation in the first place.
  Meanwhile, Americans are wondering if their paychecks will stretch to 
afford the sharp increases at the grocery store and in gas prices, 
utility bills, household commodities, and the list goes on.
  On the world stage, of course, the defining moment of President 
Biden's first year was his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The 
President's arbitrary, chaotic withdrawal was a real low point for our 
country. Thirteen of our military men and women died in a terrorist 
attack during the evacuation from Kabul. We abandoned thousands of 
individuals who had worked with us in Afghanistan and whom we had 
promised to protect and left behind hundreds of American citizens. The 
President, who was supposed to restore our standing on the world stage, 
left our allies wondering if our word could be relied on, not to 
mention the fact that the disastrous withdrawal left our country in a 
more precarious national security position.
  Meanwhile, the President's recent press conference left serious 
questions as to how well he is likely to handle another pressing 
national security, and that is the issue in Ukraine. Casually 
dismissing a possible ``minor incursion'' into Ukraine's sovereign 
territory did not inspire confidence in the President's ability to 
stand up to Russia.

  We can't afford missteps and walk backs. Putin is looking to test 
America and NATO's resolve, looking for any hesitation or division. I 
hope the President and the majority party will take seriously the 
threat to Ukraine, utilize any remaining levers of American influence 
to deter a renewed attack, and, if Putin proceeds, make him immediately 
realize it was a miscalculation.
  Perhaps the biggest thing the President was going to do--the most 
important way he was going to be a leader--was to pull our country 
together. That was the defining theme of President Biden's inaugural 
address.
  I quote:

       Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: 
     Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting 
     our nation.

  Contrast that speech with the speech that book-ended the other end of 
his first year, his speech in Georgia on election legislation. We went 
from a President who wanted to unite our Nation to a President who 
refers to his political opponents as enemies.
  ``We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors,'' the 
President said in his inaugural address. ``We can treat each other with 
dignity and respect.'' In his Georgia speech, by contrast, the 
President's political opponents became not only adversaries but enemies 
and racists, all for the crime of disagreeing with the President's 
vision of election reform.
  The President's complete condemnation of half the country was 
striking. I lost track of the number of people he implied were racist. 
The President assumed bad faith on the part of those who disagree with 
him. Missing from his speech was any shred of recognition that perhaps 
Americans of good will can disagree on election legislation. No, if you 
disagree with the President, you are a racist. Like Hillary Clinton 
before him, it is clear that President Biden conceives of a large 
portion of the American people as deplorables. The President repeatedly 
referred to justice in his Georgia speech. Perhaps he should consider 
the profound injustice of baselessly suggesting half the country is 
racist.
  In his inaugural address, the President said, ``We must reject a 
culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even 
manufactured.'' I have been profoundly disappointed to see the 
President and many of my Democrat colleagues manipulate the facts about 
State election bills to support their desire for a Federal takeover of 
elections.
  Manipulated facts were a hallmark of the President's speech in 
Georgia, as he tried to twist a mainstream election law into Jim Crow 
2.0. His attempts were particularly ironic given that the State he was 
complaining about offers greater opportunities to vote than are offered 
by the President's home State of Delaware.
  Days later, at a press conference marking his first year in office, 
the President laid the groundwork for future division and disunity by 
suggesting that the 2022 elections could be illegitimate if Democrats' 
election legislation doesn't get passed; that is, I assume, if 
Democrats don't win. It was yet another profoundly disappointing remark 
from a President who was supposed to take the lead in bringing this 
country together.
  One year into the Biden Presidency, it has become clear that the 
President of the inaugural address--the President whose whole soul was 
committed to uniting our Nation--has long ago disappeared. The 
President has not only failed to unite the country, but, as his ugly 
and divisive speech in Georgia made clear, he has come to regard anyone 
who opposes his policies with active hostility and contempt.
  Just 1 year--1 year--after dedicating himself to uniting our country, 
the President is dividing Americans into supporters and enemies. ``We 
must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus 
urban, conservative

[[Page S425]]

versus liberal,'' the President said in his inaugural address. It is 
too bad the President's actions have not matched his words.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.