Media Contact 202-226-8467

Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul has released the following statement in response to President Biden’s address to the United Nations General Assembly. 

“President Biden’s speech today does not match his actions. His failed leadership led to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan that abandoned our partners, angered our NATO allies and emboldened our adversaries. He’s on the verge of giving Putin a major victory by allowing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be built, while turning his back on our Central and Eastern European partners. And his eagerness to return to the flawed nuclear deal is only encouraging Iran’s nuclear provocations. All the while, China is ratcheting up its aggression in the region and its malign influence around the world. Tough talk is useless if it’s followed by weak actions.”

BACKGROUND

Afghanistan

President Biden ignored bipartisan pleas from Congress and advice from his own intelligence community and top generals and haphazardly pulled out of Afghanistan without a plan in place. As a result, American citizens, green card holders and our Afghan partners are still trapped behind enemy lines, and we are at the mercy of the Taliban to rescue them.

Russia

In the first week of his presidency, President Biden gave Vladimir Putin exactly what he wanted – a clean, five-year extension of New START that ignores Russia’s continued advancement in non-strategic nuclear weapons and new weaponry. He then ignored the will of Congress by waiving mandatory sanctions on the entities responsible for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a Russian malign influence project that will enrich Putin while making our European allies more reliant on Russian energy. All the while, he continues to choose to appease the Kremlin over supporting our Central and Eastern European partners like Ukraine. Click here for a full list of Biden’s weak actions on Russia.

Iran

President Biden appears more eager to reinstate the flawed Iran nuclear deal than to actually hold Iran accountable for its malign actions. 

Strategic Competition

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the entity most responsible for worsening the threats President Biden highlighted in his speech – the pandemic, cheating in international trade, the destruction of international norms, the malign use of new technology and especially climate. But instead of urging accountability, the President once again tried to reassure the CCP of our willingness to work with them, just as he tried in his disastrous call with Xi Jinping two weeks ago. The CCP deserves only one message about U.S. resolve: we will do what’s necessary to protect the world from their malign ambitions.

###