The idiots who elected this idiot senator.... Poor America!

Republican Senator Ted Cruz is delaying the approval of dozens of US State Department candidates, including 59 ambassadors, in an effort to get the US administration to take tougher action on Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Reported by The New York Times. Cruz cannot single-handedly block President Joe Biden's proposed appointments to the State Department, but the lack of "unanimous consent" in the Senate has slowed this process significantly. Officials in the US administration call the current situation a personnel crisis, writes NYT.

The Republican is abusing his position and endangering national security, Democrats are convinced. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Robert Menendez, called the situation unprecedented. According to him, we are talking about "a complete delay in the approval of all candidates, regardless of whether they have anything to do with the political issue in question."

According to the NYT, due to Cruise's actions, the appointment of US ambassadors to countries such as China, Egypt and Germany, as well as the approval of key candidates in the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, could take months. Cruz is a supporter of tough measures against Nord Stream 2, he said that Biden is not doing enough to block the construction of the Russian gas pipeline.

The Republican criticized Washington's decision not to impose restrictions on the operator of the Nord Stream 2 AG project. He called the German-US gas pipeline deal that would allow Russia to complete the project a disaster and said that Biden had "surrendered completely" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In March, Cruise tried to thwart the confirmation of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief William Burns and First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to secure new sanctions against Nord Stream 2, but the Senate eventually approved their candidacies. In July, NBC wrote that due to the Republican, senators could not approve 13 candidates for key positions in the State Department. Cruz pledged that he would discourage the appointments "until a full package of sanctions, as indicated by Congress, is imposed against ships and companies vital to the completion of the pipeline."

During the implementation of the gas pipeline project, the United States imposed two packages of sanctions against companies and ships involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2. At the same time, Washington did not impose restrictions on Nord Stream 2 AG. Biden said the pipeline was "almost complete" and that applying new measures would be "unproductive" for US relations with Europe. However, on August 20, the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions related to the project: the companies "Nobility" and "Constanta" and the courts "Ivan Sidorenko" and "Ostap Sheremet" fell under them. This happened after Biden signed a decree according to which measures against Nord Stream 2 became part of the "state of emergency." On September 24, the US Congress approved a draft defense budget of about $ 780 billion. It provides for sanctions on the secondary market for Russian debt securities and new restrictions against Nord Stream 2.

And they elect this dumb idiot as their senator...???

Poor America!

Сенатор Тед Круз, пытаясь добиться от Байдена более жестких мер против российского газопровода, мешает утверждению кандидатов на десятки дипломатических должностей, в том числе 59 послов

Подробнее на РБК:
https://www.rbc.ru/politics/03/10/2021/6158e6319a7947fc146747f8?