00:00Thank you, Mr. President. For some reason, the Presiding Officer has drawn the short
00:07straw to be the Presiding Officer during my daily or frequent speeches here on the floor,
00:13but I appreciate your patience and indulgence. This morning, I come to the floor to talk
00:19about the Intelligence Committee's worldwide threats hearing that is ongoing now in Hart
00:26Office Building. We have all the leaders of the Intelligence Committee, including the
00:30Director of National Intelligence there, and we hold this hearing once a year. It serves
00:38as an important reminder of where the United States stands in terms of the rest of the
00:45world and what we should be concerned about and we should protect against. Key among the
00:51threats that have been testified to already in Open Session, and we'll be going to Closed
00:57Classified Session here shortly, but key among the threats discussed this morning was the
01:03threat of Russia. Russia is engaged, of course, in an ongoing hot war with Ukraine, a conflict
01:12that President Trump is rightly seeking to end. But while this is perhaps toward the
01:19forefront of many people's minds when they think about Russia, it's not the only threat
01:24that Russia poses to the West. And I use the term West advisedly. That's not just the United
01:31States. That includes the United States, but it's far broader than that. Some have described,
01:39and I think the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, this morning confirmed that
01:44Russia is engaged in a shadow war against the West. One of the ways that they have engaged
01:52in this shadow war is through sabotage. That, again, was also confirmed by the Secretary,
01:59by the Director of National Intelligence this morning. She said these have included attacks
02:06against transportation targets like trains, airplanes, and other vehicles, attacks against
02:12government and military targets. And some of these attacks have been directed toward critical
02:18infrastructure like pipelines, undersea fiber optic cables, and the electric grid. Russia has
02:27also targeted industries like defense companies and the leaders of such companies that support
02:34their adversaries. These attacks have accelerated in recent years. Between 2022 and 2023,
02:42Russia has quadrupled its orchestrated sabotage attacks in Europe. And then they nearly tripled
02:53again in 2024. And while this behavior has escalated in recent years, it should come as
03:01no surprise to anyone who is familiar with Russian history or the history of Russian actions when it
03:09comes to their adversaries. Given Russia's geography, it's always been part of their
03:17strategy to extend their westernmost border to provide a larger buffer and a smaller border for
03:24Moscow to have to defend. But above and beyond their history of aggressive expansionism, trying
03:32to restore really the now collapsed Soviet Union, Russia also has a history of using tactics outside
03:44of conventional warfare. These are tactics that advance Russia's strategic interests and weaken
03:51those of its adversaries, but may not rise to the level that would merit countermeasures by
04:00the target of these efforts. The Soviet Union, the predecessor to the Russian Federation,
04:07has historically heavily relied upon during such tactics during the Cold War. For example,
04:15the KGB, which was the name of the premier Russian intelligence agency back during the Cold War,
04:23the KGB led a campaign to influence public opinion among certain populations to advance
04:29Soviet interests. And of course, that has continued today under Vladimir Putin and the Russian
04:37Federation. One of the reasons the KGB and now the modern intelligence agencies of the Russian
04:45Federation use these methods is that they do not necessarily trigger Article 5 of the
04:53North Atlantic Treaty Organization Agreement. Article 5 is the agreement that an attack against
05:00one member of NATO will be considered attack against all, which is why it's called a collective
05:06defense agreement. And the United States, of course, is one of the signatories to that North
05:12Atlantic Treaty Alliance. And one of the risks of Russia triggering Article 5 is that it would
05:23necessarily risk a broader war, regional or even worse. And of course, I know we are all acutely
05:33aware of the dangers posed by any country triggering Article 5 of NATO. This is, in part,
05:41why President Trump has rightly insisted that our NATO allies increase their defense spending
05:49in line with their NATO commitments. It is just not fair or appropriate or actually in
05:56NATO's self-interest for those countries to depend entirely on the United States,
06:02which is why President Trump has said the 2 percent of GDP's defense spending requirement
06:08is really out of date and that really NATO countries should be spending somewhere closer
06:16to 5 percent of their gross domestic product on their defense. Again, that's also to relieve the
06:24burden on the American taxpayer who has been picking up the tab for far too long.
06:30And we see the success that President Trump has had by urging our NATO allies to provide more for
06:38their self-defense, with France and Germany leading the charge to reinvigorate their defense budgets.
06:46That's encouraging, but it takes time, but it needs to start and it has already started.
06:55But in any case, it's clear that Russia is concerned about anything that might trigger
07:03Article 5 treaty obligations. Russia, in fact, knows that in a conventional war
07:10that it is no match for the West or NATO, and so they resort to behind-the-scenes activities to
07:17indirectly affect, advance their own interests and harm those interests of their adversaries
07:23without triggering a reaction from the West. Now, some of these are the reasons why,
07:32because Russia knows that it cannot win a conventional war in Europe were one to break out,
07:37is why it continues to rattle the nuclear saber and why Putin over and over and over again
07:45threatens the possibility of the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which, of course,
07:50would be catastrophic for everybody involved. Some of my colleagues may be familiar,
07:57I'm sure the public is, with the analogy of a frog in boiling water. If you drop a frog in
08:04a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of lukewarm
08:11water, you can slowly acclimate the frog to that temperature and it will not jump out.
08:18But, of course, once the water comes to a boil again, it will kill the frog and obviously be
08:26too late. That analogy, I believe, applies to the threat that Russia continues to pose
08:33to the United States and our friends and allies around the world.
08:39This could, in fact, be the West, if we're not vigilant, because we know that the approach
08:47and the tactics and the intentions of the Russian Federation have really not changed over time.
08:56They are slowly, however, turning up the temperature to weaken us and perhaps to lull us
09:02into complacency. But this is not the only tactic that Russia has employed in its war against the
09:11West. They also have a history of more blatant war crimes. In 2014, Russia violated its commitments
09:21in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum by annexing Crimea, which is part of Ukraine. The Budapest
09:29Memorandum, which, again, was dated in 1994, was a treaty signed by Russia, the United States,
09:36and the United Kingdom. Under this agreement, Ukraine, which had become newly independent after
09:43the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine would dispose of its nuclear arsenal in exchange for
09:50an agreement to protect its territorial integrity and independence. And at the time,
09:58Ukraine had the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world. So it was certainly
10:05in the interest of the United States and world peace to see Ukraine dispose of that nuclear
10:11stockpile. But then again, in 2022, Russia violated its commitments under the Budapest
10:19Memorandum by launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These actions are a clear signal
10:26to the West that Russia has a history of reneging on its agreements and simply cannot be trusted.
10:34And so the task at hand for the West, including the United States, is to reestablish deterrence
10:41of Russia and to make sure that we do everything we can to disincentivize them from continuing
10:49this long train of abuses. And of course, one of the consequences of rising feelings of insecurity
10:58in Europe is that now you have countries like Poland talking about acquiring nuclear weapons.
11:04You have the incoming chancellor of Germany saying that perhaps
11:11the UK and Germany should share its nuclear weapons with Ukraine. Now, I had the chance to
11:19question the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and I asked whether this threat of
11:25proliferation of nuclear weapons made the world a more dangerous place. It seems like an obvious
11:31question, but of course, he confirmed that that would be the case. So proliferation of nuclear
11:37weapons in Europe is a bad thing and something we ought to seek to avoid at all costs.
11:44So I know President Trump has a big task in front of him, and I personally will do everything I can
11:51to support his efforts. But we need to reestablish deterrence without seeing
11:58nuclear weapons proliferate, which will, in fact, make the world more dangerous and not safer.
12:05As I've said before, and I think is obvious to all of us, we are living in the most dangerous
12:11time since World War II. And certainly this morning's hearing on the World Threat Assessment
12:17before the leaders of the intelligence community have
12:20driven home this reality and confirmed what we already knew.
12:28Mr. President, on another related matter, today is the National Medal of Honor Day,
12:35where we honor the bravery of our military heroes who've been awarded the Medal of Honor.
12:41Last Saturday, I had a chance, along with the presiding officer, to attend the grand opening
12:46of the Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, where I was moved by, among other things,
12:53the words of General Rainey, the head of Army Futures Command, headquartered in Austin, Texas.
13:01General Rainey reminded us, quote, nobody hates war more than the men and women who served in it.
13:09But we all hope that when we find ourselves at that moment, the darkest hour of the darkest day,
13:17when it's our turn to be tested, we hope that we will measure up to the courage and valor
13:25of these men. So as we consider the challenges that face not only the United States,
13:33but the rest of the free world, I think the words of General Rainey can serve as a reminder
13:40in this moment. And while we may have some differences among us about our preferred
13:45approaches and tactics, we should all be united in our goal of preventing the proliferation of
13:53nuclear weapons and, heaven forbid, another reoccurrence of the world war that my dad
14:01fought in many years ago. And hopefully, to be able to keep our young men and women out of harm's
14:09way, rather than to have them exposed to the same dangers that previous generations were exposed to
14:16in two world wars in the European continent. Again, I applaud the efforts of President Trump
14:23and Vice President Vance to do everything possible to wind down the current conflict
14:31in Eastern Europe in order to avoid it from morphing into a larger regional or even global
14:38conflict. And I think those of us who believe in a higher power would do well to continue to say our
14:46prayers that that ultimately is a successful effort. And I certainly will join in that effort.
14:56Mr. President, before I yield the floor, I would ask unanimous consent to waive
15:00the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Kratosios nomination.
Comments