Sen. Cruz on Nord Stream 2: ‘A Generational Geopolitical Mistake That Will Strengthen Russia at the Expense of All of the West’
Joins Fox Business’ ‘Kudlow’ to slam the politicization of the IRS and the Biden administration’s refusal to sanction the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined Fox Business' ‘Kudlow' to discuss his push for the Biden administration to sanction Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the recent ProPublica report on leaked IRS documents. Highlights of Sen. Cruz's interview are below.
WATCH: Sen. Cruz: Just a Few Months Into the Biden Administration and They're Already Politicizing the IRS
On the politicization of the IRS, Sen. Cruz said:
"When it comes to the IRS, this is abuse of power, grotesque abuse of power, politicization of the IRS. We saw Barack Obama politicize the IRS. We're just a few months into the Biden administration and they're politicizing the IRS. If you're sitting at home, you're thinking well, that is just those super rich billionaires, what do I worry about that? If their privacy of their tax filings isn't protected, your privacy isn't either. Whoever leaked this illegally should be prosecuted and should go to jail. I will tell you the best solution for this - what I've been advocating a long time - we should adopt a simple flat tax, [...] broaden the base, lower the rates, have a simple flat tax. Fill out taxes on a postcard and then abolish the IRS. Get rid of that abusive, politicized institution - shut them down."
On the Biden administration's foreign policy failures, Sen. Cruz said:
"It has been stunning to see in the first five months foreign policy blunder after foreign policy blunder. You have to go back to the Jimmy Carter administration to find an administration that had as many catastrophic foreign policy mistakes. Joe Biden began his presidency by ripping up the ‘Remain in Mexico' agreement, an historic agreement president Trump negotiated with Mexico, lowered illegal immigration to the lowest rate in 45 years. Biden ripped that agreement up. We now have a border crisis Joe Biden created. Not only that, we saw Joe Biden in the Middle East undermine our friends and strengthen our enemies. We saw Joe Biden undermine Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu. We saw him send over $250 million to the Palestinian Authority that is in bed with Hamas and pledge as number one foreign policy objective sending billions of dollars to the Ayatollah Khamenei who pledges and chants ‘Death to America' and ‘Death to Israel.' What did that do? He took what had been historic peace, flowering peace of the Abraham Accords, within nine months turned it into war in the Middle East with over 4,000 rockets raining down upon Israel."
On the Biden administration's decision not to sanction Putin's pipeline, Sen. Cruz said:
"It is stunning that Joe Biden managed to give a multibillion-dollar gift to Vladimir Putin. He waived the mandatory sanctions. I authored those sanctions, bipartisan sanctions. President Trump signed them into law not once, but twice. They shut down the pipeline from Russia to Germany. It was an incredible bipartisan victory. It was a victory for Europe. It was a victory for America and American jobs. What did Joe Biden do? He said, ‘Putin, start the pipeline again. I'm waiving the sanctions.' And this is, I believe, a generational geopolitical mistake that will strengthen Russia at the expense of all of the West."
[...]
"The European parliament has voted to condemn Nord Stream 2. The vote was 400 some odd votes to 100. It was an overwhelming vote in the European parliament. This is really an amazing foreign policy victory. You go back to the summer of 2019 where Putin was rushing to build this pipeline. I first introduced the sanctions seeking to shut it down. There was Russian disinformation that Putin was putting out that said the sanctions wouldn't work, they couldn't work - there was no way to stop the pipeline. That information was a lie then, it's a lie today. We passed those sanctions. I got Democrat support, Republican support, passed it through both houses of Congress. President Trump signed that bill, if I remember correctly at 7:00 p.m. on a Thursday at 6:45 p.m.. Fifteen minutes before it was signed into law, the company that was building Nord Stream 2 announced they were immediately the halting construction. For a year it laid dormant. Tony Blinken's point is they inherited a tough situation because it was 90 percent built. You know what a 90 percent complete pipeline is? Zero percent complete. It doesn't work until you finish it."
###
