[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  NATO

  Mr. President, on NATO, this week, the United States will welcome 
NATO leaders to Washington for the 2024 NATO summit. Western democracy 
faces perhaps its gravest threat since the Cold War. So this year's 
NATO summit comes at an inflection point.
  Russia's invasion of Ukraine rages on. Putin's cruelty--cruelty--
shows no sign of softening. We read yesterday a heartbreaking and 
infuriating report. Russian missile strikes obliterated a wing of the 
largest children's hospital in Kyiv, killing at least 31 Ukrainians, 
injuring another 150.
  Shooting a missile at a children's hospital that had no military 
significance is vicious; it is nasty. It shows what a scoundrel Putin 
is.
  My heart breaks for those children in hospital whose lives were taken 
away in the attack, the mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters 
drowning in grief. Again, this was the largest children's hospital in 
the Ukrainian capital, where kids who had cancer were going--a place 
that should be off limits to anyone who is a decent, honorable human 
being; who has at all a heart.
  Putin has none of that--no decency, no honor, no heart--and it shows 
you how utterly morally bankrupt Putin's invasion of Ukraine truly is.
  A lot of hard-right extremists led by Donald Trump tried to kill 
Ukraine aid earlier this year, but Putin's attack against the 
children's hospital shows why it is essential for America to stand with 
Ukraine. They are fighting an evil brute in Russia, and the worst thing 
America can do is show weakness against Putin or tell Ukraine we will 
abandon them. I am glad we stepped up earlier.
  So as the NATO leaders gather in DC this week, nothing less than the 
future of Western democracy is at stake. President Biden will bring an 
unmistakable message to our NATO allies, as well as to our adversaries 
watching across the world: America will never turn its back on NATO.
  My Senate colleagues and I will be honored to welcome the leaders of 
NATO here to the Capitol this week, as well as President Zelenskyy of 
Ukraine. We in the Senate will send President Zelenskyy and our NATO 
allies the same message we have shared from day one: America will never 
turn its back on you.
  The same cannot be said for Donald Trump. Remember, it was Donald 
Trump who called NATO ``obsolete'' and said that he would encourage 
Russia to do ``whatever the hell they want'' to our NATO allies. 
Amazing. This is the wrong message to send to NATO, with so much at 
stake around the world. It is another example of why the MAGA hard 
right can't be trusted to lead on the global stage.