A contentious exchange between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken exploded with a blistering accusation from Cruz that the Biden administration is funding America’s enemies.
The outburst came during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday during which Cruz and Blinken jousted over Blinken’s lack of a response to Cruz’s question about how much oil Iran exports.
“Don’t filibuster,” Cruz said as Blinken spoke without giving Cruz a number, later cutting off Blinken by saying, “I’m not interested in speeches.”
Cruz then slammed the Biden administration for cozying up to Iran.
“This administration desperately wants a new Iran deal. You have been showering cash on Iran from day one,” Cruz said. “By refusing to enforce oil sanctions, we have seen Iran’s oil sales go from 300,000 barrels a day when you got into office to over two million barrels a day today.”
Cruz then honed in on the connection between Iran and terrorism.
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“Ninety percent of Hamas’s funding comes from Iran,” he said.
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“In a very real sense, this administration, you and President Biden, funded the Oct. 7 attacks by flowing $100 billion to a homicidal, genocidal regime that funded those attacks,” Cruz said.
“That statement is profoundly wrong,” Blinken said.
“Why?” Cruz shot back.
“I’m not even going to humor it. I think it’s a disgraceful statement,” Blinken responded.
After some back-and-forth, Cruz offered his final judgment: “You’ve funded our enemies, and you undermine our friends, and the world is much, much more dangerous as a result, and Americans are in greater jeopardy because of it.”
On his website, Cruz posted a comment he made to Blinken during the hearing in which he said, “Mr. Secretary, you have presided over the worst foreign policy disaster of modern times. When Joe Biden became president, he inherited peace and prosperity in the world. We now have two simultaneous wars waging: the worst war in Europe since World War II and the worst war in the Middle East in 50 years.”
“Both, I believe, were caused by this administration’s consistent weakness. And indeed, your foreign policy is precisely backwards from what a rational American foreign policy should be,” Cruz said.
“To our friends and allies, this administration has consistently undermined, weakened, and attacked them. And to our enemies, this administration has shown constant appeasement and indeed has flowed billions of dollars to the enemies of America who want to kill us,” he said.
The two men also sparred over the administration’s pause on weapons Israel needs to root out Hamas from Rafah, according to the Daily Caller.
“Senator, I was in Israel five days since Oct. 7. I’ve been there seven times since. No one, starting with President Biden, has done more to make sure they have what they need to defend themselves from Hamas to deal with the threat that Hamas’ poses,” Blinken said.
“That is ludicrous! Why have you cut off weapons to Israel, then?” Cruz said.
