{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=C802F7E8-6C02-49C5-938D-DBAE0092A2BB", "McConnell: Biden Administration Needs to Get Serious About Our National Security", "2021-10-27", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding national security:\n\n\u201cThe President\u2019s retreat from Afghanistan continues to have dangerous and disastrous consequences.\n\n\u201cYesterday, one Pentagon official gave Senators a new estimate of how many Americans the Administration had left behind. The count Secretary Austin claimed last month was less than 100 has now risen to nearly 450.\n\n\u201cThe Biden Administration spent weeks insisting they only left about 100 Americans behind in Afghanistan when the truth was multiple times that.\n\n\u201cThe Administration has also continued to fail to keep its promises to brave Afghan allies.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, as many warned, the terrorist threat is growing in the wake of our retreat. The same Pentagon official acknowledged that Afghanistan-based ISIS-K and Al Qaeda terrorists have the intent, and are acquiring the capability, to strike the United States.\n\n\u201cISIS-K could threaten our homeland in as little as six months. And the Biden Administration still doesn\u2019t have basing or access agreements in neighboring countries for it supposed plan to hit terrorists from \u2018over the horizon.\u2019\n\n\u201cNo wonder our adversaries are testing this President\u2019s resolve to protect American personnel and American interests.\n\n\u201cA complex attack against U.S. forces in Syria last week may well have been carried out at the behest of Iran.\n\n\u201cThe Administration isn\u2019t saying. They need to come clean about who was responsible and how they intend to respond.\n\n\u201cWe know Tehran badly wants the U.S. and its partners out of Syria and Iraq, and to continue to threaten Israel and other U.S. partners. What we don\u2019t know is what the Biden Administration plans to do about it.\n\n\u201cEven where progress should be easy, this Administration finds ways to mess things up.\n\n\u201cFor example, there\u2019s strong bipartisan agreement about the threat the People\u2019s Republic of China poses to international security and specifically to American interests.\n\n\u201cCase in point: Beijing\u2019s recent publicly-reported efforts to test hypersonic weapons and advance their nuclear capabilities. China\u2019s also dramatically expanding the naval capabilities that they openly use to harass other nations.\n\n\u201cBoth Republicans and Democrats would welcome a clear and coherent China strategy from this Administration. But all we are getting is a muddled mess.\n\n\u201cA few days ago, no sooner did President Biden offer comments on his own Taiwan policy then White House staff rapidly walked them back.\n\n\u201cWho\u2019s in charge over there? The President or the Press Secretary?\n\n\u201cAmerican Administrations have a tradition of handling Taiwan with something called \u2018strategic ambiguity.\u2019 I\u2019m afraid the Biden team is taking that a little too literally. Even they themselves seem to have no idea what they are doing.\n\n\u201cPresident Biden likes to say something like: \u2018Show me your budget and I\u2019ll tell you what you value.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut President Biden\u2019s own request for the defense budget didn\u2019t even keep up with President Biden\u2019s inflation.\n\n\u201cThis White House proposed to cut defense funding after inflation.\n\n\u201cAnd here in the Senate, Democrats\u2019 partisan appropriations process seeks to shortchange defense in favor of runaway domestic spending.\n\n\u201cEven their ostensibly China-focused bill from earlier this year would not have included any funding for the kinds of advanced defense capabilities that we need to keep pace if it weren\u2019t for an amendment offered by Senator Sasse.\n\n\u201cEven the NDAA is stuck in limbo.\n\n\u201cThe defense authorization bill is our most basic opportunity to shape security policy. It is a core duty for a Senate majority. The bare minimum.\n\n\u201cBut Democrats have completely neglected the NDAA and the traditional, robust, and real floor process that it will need. They\u2019re too busy debating how much socialism to unleash on the country to look out for our troops, our veterans, and our national security.\n\n\u201cThis unseriousness will leave Americans less safe.\n\n\u201cIt is just that simple.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=C802F7E8-6C02-49C5-938D-DBAE0092A2BB"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7420391775667667, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}