[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 11, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following 
nomination, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant executive clerk read the nomination of William 
Long, of Missouri, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the 
remainder of the term expiring November 12, 2027.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                        38th Anniversary of the
                        Brandenburg Gate Speech

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, 38 years ago on June 12, 1987, President 
Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and called for the General 
Secretary of the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall.
  That wall was originally built to prevent people from fleeing 
communist East Germany into democratic West Berlin. The legendary line 
that President Reagan spoke:

       Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

  Now, those lines were nearly left out of the speech after the 
advisers from the State Department and the National Security Council 
claimed that the statement was, in their words, ``too provocative.''
  But President Reagan stood his ground. He wanted to speak directly to 
the hearts of the divided world and take a moral stance against 
tyranny. President Reagan's words resonated with millions of East 
Germans. These East Germans dreamed of freedom. Two years later, the 
wall came down. It turned out that Reagan's words were prophetic--not 
provocative. Russia only understands strength. We still know that 
today.
  I have reminded my colleagues of this fact in the context of the 
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Weakness is what provokes a KGB man like 
Putin. President Biden was too timid in his approach, trying to manage 
escalation. Had the West instead given the Ukrainians what they needed 
earlier, they might have pushed Russia out of their country by now.
  President Trump ought to not make the same mistake that President 
Biden made. I think Putin thinks that he can play President Trump. 
Putin's lackey, former ``puppet'' President Medvedev, admitted recently 
what Russia wants is not peace but in his words ``swift victory'' and, 
again, in his words a ``complete destruction'' of the Ukrainian 
Government.
  Putin will only respond to strength, and this Congress ought to give 
President Trump the tools to stand up to Putin with strong sanctions 
that plug the loopholes in the current Biden sanctions.
  I yield the floor.