While President Biden had stopped the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline here in America (and saw the hacking and shutdown of another come on his watch), he and his administration were ready to lift the sanctions that barred Russia from finishing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to German. Instead of reporting on a Tuesday scoop from Axios, ABC, CBS, and NBC decried that Biden wasn’t doing more to stop Israel from bombing their friends in Hamas.
So, leave it up to Fox News Channel’s Special Report to break down Biden’s “rhetoric vs. action when it comes to Russia,” as anchor Bret Baier put it.
“President Biden and his administration tonight are waiving sanctions against the company overseeing construction of Russia's energy pipeline into Germany. A pipeline that Russian President Vladimir Putin desperately wants to complete,” he announced at the top of the show.
“The irony” was not lost on Baier, as he noted that Democrats (and the liberal media) had spent years “accusing President Trump of being a willing or unwilling agent of Russia, that on policy the Biden administration seems to be much friendlier to Putin on a number of fronts.”
After noting Republican objections to the idea, State Department correspondent Rich Edson described how Biden was more interested in making German Chancellor Angela Merkel happy than protecting the NATO and other allies that had Russia looming over them (click “expand”):
Analysts say the move is in deference to the U.S. relationship with Germany. One that deteriorated during the Trump years, though comes at a cost now of other American allies like Ukraine and Poland. A State Department spokesperson says the administration still considers the pipeline a project that threatens European energy security, and that, “we continue to examine entities involved in potentially sanctionable activity and have made it clear that companies risk sanctions if they are involved in Nord Stream 2.”
During the panel discussion, Baier recalled that while the Biden administration blamed former President Trump for the damaged relationship with Germany, “It was the Obama administration that had to tell publicly in 2015 that the NSA was listening to Merkel's phone calls – cell phone calls and said that damaged the relationship with Germany.”
Baier also had the man behind the scoop, Axios national political correspondent Jonathan Swan, on to elaborate on the importance of the story. “Well, it's hugely important. It's Vladimir Putin basically maintaining strategic leverage in Europe,” he told viewers. “It's a direct pipeline between Russia and Germany. It cuts out Ukraine completely harming the Ukrainians and they are very worried about this.”
He also detailed the “extreme cognitive dissidence” Biden was exhibiting with his incoherent policy:
And it also raises a really bizarre situation. This is going to be laid out in a report that they’re mandated to give to Congress every 90 days. We’re going to see a situation where the Biden administration says okay -- and your correspondent laid this out – we’re sanctioning a handful of Russian ships, but we are not sanctioning, in fact, we’re waiving the company that runs the pipeline and one of Putin's cronies who’s the CEO of that company.
When asked to speak on the Biden administration taking a softer position with Russia than Trump, Swan pointed out that “construction on this pipeline actually halted under the Trump administration. It had basically come to a standstill and it resumed after Biden took office.”
The silence on President Biden’s gift to Vladimir Putin was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Amazon on ABC, Ancestry on CBS, and Consumer Cellular on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
May 18, 2021
6:00:28 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Rhetoric vs. action when it comes to Russia. President Biden and his administration tonight are waiving sanctions against the company overseeing construction of Russia's energy pipeline into Germany. A pipeline that Russian President Vladimir Putin desperately wants to complete. Republican lawmakers say President Biden's decision is a violation of U.S. law. They fear the project will strengthen Russian influence in Europe and increase European dependents on Moscow. They also point out the irony after four years of accusing President Trump of being a willing or unwilling agent of Russia, that on policy the Biden administration seems to be much friendlier to Putin on a number of fronts. State Department correspondent Rich Edson has details tonight. Good evening, rich.
RICH EDSON: Good evening, Bret. The Biden administration will justify and then waive sanctions on the company that's in charge of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its CEO citing U.S. national security interest. That's according to a source familiar with the decision confirming a report in Axios. The pipeline is about 95 percent finished and would deliver Russian gas directly to Germany bypassing Ukraine and giving significant influence to the Russian government. Republican Senator Ben Sasse writes, quote: “Two months ago, President Biden called Putin a ‘killer.’ But today he is planning to give Putin, his regime, and his cronies in massive strategic leverage in Europe. You can't pretend to be a Russia hawk but then just roll over.” Republican Senator Ted Cruz tweeted, quote, “Stunning. In defiance of U.S. law Biden is actively helping Putin build his pipeline. Objectively speaking, the Biden administration is shaping up to be the most pro-Russian administration of the modern era.” Other Republicans are using this to turn the rhetorical tables on Democrats who accused then-President Trump of bending to the Kremlin. Pointing to congressional administration sanctions against Russia during the previous administration. Analysts say the move is in deference to the U.S. relationship with Germany. One that deteriorated during the Trump years, though comes at a cost now of other American allies like Ukraine and Poland. A State Department spokesperson says the administration still considers the pipeline a project that threatens European energy security, and that, quote, “we continue to examine entities involved in potentially sanctionable activity and have made it clear that companies risk sanctions if they are involved in Nord Stream 2. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says he has stressed to the German government repeatedly for months that the U.S. opposes this pipeline. He has said the administration is determined to do whatever it can to prevent its completion though has pointed out that it was mostly finished when the administration took office. The source familiar with the decision says the administration will sanction other entities involved in the pipeline's construction and do so ahead of Blinken’s meeting tomorrow with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at a summit in Iceland. Bret?
BAIER: More on this panel. Rich Edson live at the State Department. Rich, thank you.
(…)
6:10:06 p.m. Eastern
JONATHAN SWAN: Well, it's hugely important. It's Vladimir Putin basically maintaining strategic leverage in Europe. It's a direct pipeline between Russia and Germany. It cuts out Ukraine completely harming the Ukrainians and they are very worried about this. And really what this decision, which their plan amounts to is the United States deciding that it's more important to keep the Germans happy and to preserve that relationship with Germany than it is to do everything in their power to stop the completion of this pipeline. And it also raises a really bizarre situation. This is going to be laid out in a report that they’re mandated to give to Congress every 90 days. We’re going to see a situation where the Biden administration says okay -- and your correspondent laid this out – we’re sanctioning a handful of Russian ships, but we are not sanctioning, in fact, we’re waiving the company that runs the pipeline and one of Putin's cronies who’s the CEO of that company. So, it just creates extreme cognitive dissidence and it's not really a coherent policy.
BAIER: It's very strange the sanctioning they are talking about the smaller entities and not the big company. The other thing I point out is that the administration say they really want to improve the relationship with Germany from what it was with the Trump administration. It was the Obama administration that had to tell publicly in 2015 that the NSA was listening to Merkel's phone calls – cell phone calls and said that damaged the relationship with Germany. Jonathan, just the other thing to this, does the administration acknowledge that they are softer on Russia than the Trump administration?
SWAN: No. Of course, they would never acknowledge that. But, there are several things that they’ve done already which, you know, amount to that in many people's view. Certainly, in Republicans' view that number one, they were very quick to renew the arms control treaty with Russia – New START, that immediately. And now on Nord Stream 2. They’re just not going as far as many Republicans want them to go. And, just as another piece of context that's really important to remember here, which is, construction on this pipeline actually halted under the Trump administration. It had basically come to a standstill and it resumed after Biden took office. It's true the pipeline is almost completed. About 95 percent complete. But the fact is they’re not doing whatever they can – despite promising that they would – to stop this final stretch of the pipeline.
(…)
