'Sent The Message Of Weakness': Dan Sullivan Blasts Biden-Harris Admin Over Foreign Policy Posture

last month

During Senate floor remarks, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) demanded the NDAA be brought to the floor, and blasted the Biden-Harris Administration over military posture.

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Transcript

00:00Madam President, I want to join my colleagues here on the Senate floor and talk about the

00:04importance of national security right here in the Congress of the United States is certainly

00:09one of our top priorities protecting our nation.

00:13You know, President Ronald Reagan, who very much focused on the issue of peace through

00:19strength and I'm going to talk about that here in a minute, Madam President.

00:25He once said, quote, we know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom

00:32are strong, but when they are weak.

00:36It is then that the tyrants are tempted.

00:41It is then that the tyrants are tempted.

00:45Well, Madam President, tyrants like this guy, that's Xi Jinping sporting some camis there

00:51with his military.

00:55Tyrants like this guy and the tyrants around the world, they are tempted.

01:00They are tempted.

01:02They are on the march.

01:03Look at this poster.

01:05That's Xi Jinping again in his military uniform kind of looks ridiculous from my perspective,

01:10but hey, they're on the march.

01:14Putin, the terrorists in Iran, Kim Jong-un in North Korea, Venezuela, for goodness sakes,

01:22all the tyrants are working together and they are on the march because the forces of freedom,

01:32as President Reagan said, have become weak.

01:36And look, Madam President, you've heard it from my colleagues from North Carolina, Mississippi.

01:41We're on the armed services together.

01:44By the way, they're both doing a great job.

01:46I'll make sure we can see that.

01:52And yet, this body is not taking up what we need to take up.

01:58So just a couple examples, Senator Budd was talking about the chaos in the Middle East,

02:05the appeasement of Iran by the Biden-Harris administration.

02:09By the way, in my great state, just this past week, we had a joint Russian-Chinese

02:17strategic bomber patrol come into our ADIZ, into the kind of territorial airspace right

02:25near Alaska.

02:26It never happened before.

02:29In the history of the country, the Chinese and Russian joint bomber patrols with fighters

02:37coming into American airspace, the tyrants, this guy, they're tempted.

02:44They've never done that before, Madam President.

02:47And we heard about this.

02:49We all know this started due to the botched, chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that has

02:56sent the message of weakness.

03:00Now, our wonderful military up in Alaska, they scrambled 10 fighter jets, fully armed,

03:06went and greeted the Chinese and the Russians and said, not today, guys, turn around, get

03:13out of our airspace.

03:15But that was an escalation, Madam President, never happened before.

03:19In the United States, we need to be stronger, much stronger than the Biden-Harris administration

03:27has enabled us to be.

03:29So what can we do here on the Senate floor, Madam President?

03:33Well, what we can do, and you've heard my colleagues talk about it, is that we can bring

03:38up the National Defense Authorization Act.

03:41Like a lot of my colleagues who have been talking on the floor right now, I serve on

03:45the Armed Services Committee, was glad to work on this bill in a bipartisan way.

03:50I saw Chairman Reid here a minute ago on the floor.

03:52He did a great job, the chairman of the committee.

03:55We dramatically increased the top line number that we need in terms of our military, the

04:03men and women who did the mission like they did last week in Alaska.

04:07By the way, that's not an easy mission, flying 1,000 miles from their base to go intercept

04:11Russians and Chinese with fighters, that was not an easy mission.

04:15Our military members did it really well.

04:18But here's the issue, Madam President.

04:22For so many of my Democratic colleagues, especially the majority leader, the military and bringing

04:28the NDAA on the floor is just not a priority.

04:31No offense to some of the people we're confirming right now, but these are not priorities.

04:38The time on the Senate floor reflects priorities.

04:41The majority leader has kind of indicated, hey, even though we've got a good NDAA, even

04:46though our country is in peril right now with the dictators on the march, even though the

04:51House already passed a version, the Senate, ah, forget it.

04:55We'll do like a tax judge.

04:57We won't bring the NDAA to the floor.

04:59Now I know a lot of Democrats who worked hard, the presiding officer is one who worked hard

05:05on this bill.

05:07A lot of my Democrat colleagues want the bill on the floor.

05:11For whatever reason, the Senate majority leader during this dangerous time will not bring

05:15a bipartisan bill strengthening our military to the floor.

05:22Why won't he do that, Madam President?

05:25Why won't he do that?

05:26Well, I will say there is a major, major difference between our parties.

05:34Major difference.

05:36What is that difference?

05:37Well, I like to proudly proclaim that the Republicans have been, are, and I hope will

05:45always be the party of peace through strength.

05:51Peace through strength.

05:55By the way, Madam President, if you take a look at the Republican Party platform that

06:00we issued in Milwaukee at our convention a couple weeks ago, it's all about returning

06:07to peace through strength.

06:08That's what the platform is about.

06:09By the way, I took a look at the Republican Party platform in 2024 and the Reagan Bush

06:16platform in 1984 on peace through strength.

06:21They're almost identical.

06:22That's what we believe in.

06:24That's what President Eisenhower believed in, Roosevelt, Reagan, President Trump certainly

06:35did in his first term.

06:37And here's the difference, Madam President, and you know, I know some of my colleagues

06:40don't like it when I say this, but hey, the truth hurts.

06:44The Democrats are the opposite of this.

06:48When the Democrats have gotten into power in the White House, what do they do?

06:53They always come and cut defense spending and they always undermine readiness.

07:00That's why the Senate Majority Leader is saying, I don't want to bring the NDA to the floor.

07:04That's not our priority.

07:05We don't do that.

07:08Let me just give a couple examples.

07:11Jimmy Carter cut defense spending in his first three years in office and the Russians and

07:15Iranians took advantage of America's weakened posture.

07:19Bill Clinton cut the size of our military by one third, upending a decade of progress

07:26under the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

07:30Barack Obama slashed the Pentagon's budget by 25% during his second term.

07:37Our military readiness plummeted.

07:39I remember coming to the Senate in 2015.

07:43I was the ranking member on the readiness subcommittee and was shocked to see three

07:48out of 58 brigade combat teams in the U.S. Army were at their highest levels of readiness.

07:54Three out of 58.

07:57Obama slashed readiness.

08:01And of course, now we have the Biden administration.

08:06Madam President, every year, this president, Biden-Harris, have been in office, they've

08:14cut defense spending every single year.

08:18This year's Biden-Harris budget shrinks the Army, shrinks the Navy, shrinks the Marine

08:22Corps.

08:23That's a fact.

08:25Next year's budget, in the next two years, if the Biden-Harris team are re-elected, we

08:30will go below 3% of GDP.

08:35Take a look at this chart.

08:36It shows you, these are the numbers on GDP.

08:39That's 15% during the Korean War, 8, 9% during Vietnam, Cold War, Reagan era, 5, 5.5%.

08:47Bush, about 4.5%.

08:51Right here, 3%.

08:55We've been below 3% of GDP four times since World War II.

09:01That is the wrong message to be sending the dictators in the world.

09:05That's what the Biden-Harris budget for the Department of Defense does right now.

09:12Now we can fix this.

09:14We can work on the NDAA, which as I mentioned, in a bipartisan way, we significantly increase

09:24the top-line budget.

09:26I want to commend Roger Wicker, Senator from Mississippi, ranking member on the Armed Services

09:32Committee for his great leadership on that.

09:36By the way, the White House was against that.

09:38They love going below 3%.

09:41During the Biden-Harris administration, you'll crank up spending for other federal agencies

09:46by double digits, some up 20%.

09:49But Homeland Security, securing the border, and our military men and women, they get a

09:56cut.

09:57Again, that's what National Democrats do.

09:59Our tradition is what the American people want, particularly during these dangerous

10:03times, peace through strength.

10:05And one way we can do that right now on the Senate floor is to bring the NDAA to the floor.

10:13To bring the NDAA to the floor.

10:16And yet, the Senate Majority Leader doesn't want to do that.

10:22Not surprising.

10:23That's the tradition of National Democrats, weakening our military, not taking it seriously,

10:27not a priority.

10:29But that's not what the American people want, Madam President.

10:32We need the NDAA to the floor now.

10:35During these dangerous times.

10:37And my colleagues and I, I'm glad to be with all of them on the floor.

10:43By the way, I'm pretty sure there will be some Democrat Senators calling for this too.

10:48They're not doing it right now, but we need it on the floor today.

10:51And I'm honored to be here with so many Republican Senators making the same call.

10:57I yield the floor.

'Sent The Message Of Weakness': Dan Sullivan Blasts Biden-Harris Admin Over Foreign Policy Posture

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