WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) recently spoke on the Senate floor about the Biden administration’s failure to protect the American people. President Biden has fallen short at home and around the world. American safety and security is suffering at the hands of Biden’s weak administration and broken promises.
Sen. Barrassoís Remarks:
“I just returned from the Middle East. We have 140 members of our Wyoming Air National Guard, and they are currently serving our nation and they are stationed in Djibouti.
“Wyoming is very proud of these brave men and women who are fighting for our freedoms.
“Visiting them was a reminder of what makes America strong. It’s also a reminder of the challenges that we continue to face.
“There’s a confluence of crisis all around the world from El Paso, Texas, to Jerusalem, Israel. These terrible crises did not emerge overnight.
“They are the direct result of the weakness of the current President of the United States. President Biden has been weak in the defenses of our nation. It’s obvious to me. It’s obvious to people around the country. It’s obvious to people all around the world.
“Since he took office, he and the Democrats have taken a wrecking ball to so many different sources of our nation’s strength.
“Hollowed out America’s military power in favor of wokeness. It’s impacted and undermined recruitment. Sold out American economic strength. In favor of what? Well, big government at home and massive government spending.
“They traded away America’s energy dominance. Why? Well, in favor of Green New Deal fantasies.
“And it does seem that Democrats apologized for American excellence at every turn.
“They’ve worked -- they work to make us more dependent upon our enemies.
“President Biden’s latest energy, he would call it a move, I would call it a disaster, weakens our nation even further.
“The administration announced in January that it would freeze permits for liquefied natural gas exports.
“I view this decision as astonishingly foolish.
“Affordable, reliable energy is the foundation of a strong, affordable economy.
“America’s energy revolution created many good-paying jobs all across the country and certainly in my home state of Wyoming.
“It made us as a nation energy independent. Some would go so far as to say energy dominant.
“And it helped us build the world’s largest LNG export industry. This also gave our European allies a secure energy source.
“This is at the time of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. This is one of the best examples of how American economic strength makes the world safer.
“Republicans want to make Europe less dependent on Russia for energy sources and more connected to the United States.
“That’s not what I see happening with this administration. Both by word and action, Democrats and this President make America and our allies more dependent on our adversaries.
“Attacking American energy dominance is a pattern of this administration.
“Started on day one.
“Remember, it was day one that after the president gave a speech right out here at the Capitol building, how he wanted to bring a nation together, he went down and took an axe to the Keystone Pipeline and opened the floodgates, at the same time we’re having the crisis we’re at our Southern Border.
“The president restricted offshore oil drilling. He’s placed a moratorium on new coal permits on federal lands.
“All of these things undermining American energy security. And now comes this blow where he is cutting American natural gas exports. He’s denying America good jobs, lower prices and empowering Russia and Iran.
“Joe Biden has failed fundamentally what should be the goal of any president, which is to make America stronger, safer, more secure.
“President Biden also has a long list of foreign policy failures.
“Nobody can forget the deadly and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Taliban terrorists, they see $7 billion of weapons, so many of these Americans had left behind.
“13 brave soldiers lost their lives, including one from Wyoming, Rylee McCollum. The fall of Kabul was a deadly disaster.
“In January of 2022, the president made another damaging misstep. He suggested that a ‘minor incursion’ by Russia into Ukraine would be met with minimal consequences.
“Weeks later we saw Russian tanks head into Kyiv.
“Then there’s the chaos in the Middle East.
“In September of 2023, the president’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, made a bold pronouncement. He said the ‘Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.’
“Eight days later, Hamas attacked Israel. They killed more than 1,200 Israelis. They took hundreds more hostage, including American citizens.
“It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“The conflicts in the Middle East are devastating, destructive, and destabilizing.
“They threaten America’s interests and America’s allies.
“Yet President Biden works hard to accommodate our enemies.
“He is a fair weathered friend to our great ally in the Middle East, Israel. We see that in his Maximum Concessions policy toward Iran. Early on, Biden pushed to rejoin Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.
“He was negotiating to lift all sanctions imposed by President Trump.
“The Biden administration’s lack of sanction enforcement and use of sanction waivers simply funded the Iranian regime.
“Iran used this flood of cash to bank roll Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist proxies.
“In turn, the terror proxies attacked America, attacked our allies, and the attacks have only increased since October 7.
“Iranian proxies have attacked American service members in the Middle East at least 180 times in the past four months.
“Let me say that again: 180 attacks on American service members in the last four months.
“We’ve lost five American troops because of these attacks.
“As the Commander in Chief, President Biden bears full responsibility for the continuity of the crisis that he has created.
“It is no surprise that Americans overwhelmingly believe our country is heading in the wrong direction.
“America needs to change course.
“The Republicans are the party of American strength.
“We believe in peace through strength, not dependence on our enemies.
“America deserves a president that is strong and a nation that is safe and secure.
“That is our commitment.
“So, I’ll tell you, the day I came back from Djibouti, it was very distressing to see the report in The New York Times.
“They reported that America and this administration has failed to do what it said it would do in terms of Iran selling oil to China. Failed.
“If it hadn’t been for The New York Times reporting, the American people wouldn’t know because the administration would never tell them that tanker after tanker had moved 59 million barrels of oil from Iran to China.
“Every one of those tankers ended up in China, and the cash worth minimum $2.8 billion ended up back in Iran. That’s the money that Iran is using to fund these 140 attacks on American service members in the last four months.
“We know where the money is coming from and yet Democrats look the other way.
“The Secretary of Treasury, hapless as she is, came to Congress and testified inaccurately, possibly misleadingly, that the administration is doing everything that they can.
“Well, they are not.
“This administration is looking the other way as a hapless and diminished President Biden continues to be outplayed by Iran.
“This is evident to the world. And as Joe Biden bungles along, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Communist China continue on the march.
“We need a strong president to keep us strong and safe and secure.”
