{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E0E0084C-3AC8-44FA-B6C3-8BB6942AF754", "Thune: President Trump and Senate Republicans Will Restore American Strength", "2024-12-04", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor about President Biden\u2019s disastrous foreign policy record and the incoming Trump administration\u2019s determination to reverse course. Thune warned our adversaries and reassured our allies that four years of weakness on the world stage is coming to an end.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, the past four years have been marked by increasing instability on the world stage.\n\n\u201cOver the course of the Biden administration, we\u2019ve seen an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia.\n\n\u201cChina flexing its power in the Indo-Pacific \u2013 and beyond \u2013 and increasingly threatening the Philippines and Taiwan.\n\n\u201cIran continuing to foment terror in the Middle East.\n\n\u201cThe worst terror attack in Israel\u2019s history.\n\n\u201cAnd the list goes on.\n\n\u201cAnd while the Biden administration cannot be held solely responsible for all of these events, the lack of clear American leadership under President Biden has undoubtedly contributed to the unrest that we\u2019ve seen internationally.\n\n\u201cThe president often seems incapable of staking out a firm policy position.\n\n\u201cAgain and again, he seems to want to have things both ways, whether he\u2019s ordering attacks on Iran-backed terrorists while simultaneously declaring his unwillingness to escalate or drawing red lines for Israel while proclaiming U.S. support.\n\n\u201cOr take the war in Ukraine, where President Biden has advocated for the U.S. providing defense assistance while simultaneously slow-walking approval for critical combat resources \u2013 which has unquestionably contributed to the present situation.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know whether the president is trying to keep all his interest groups happy or is simply afraid to fully commit, but his indecisiveness telegraphs weakness to our enemies and allies alike.\n\n\u201cJust as his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan did.\n\n\u201cOr his policy toward Iran.\n\n\u201cThe Biden administration began relations with Iran on a note of appeasement, with an attempt to reinstate the Obama administration\u2019s flawed nuclear deal, and then followed that up by unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a deal to free American prisoners.\n\n\u201cThankfully, the administration ultimately refroze those funds in the wake of Hamas\u2019 October 7, 2023, attack.\n\n\u201cBut unfreezing them in the first place was a serious mistake.\n\n\u201cAs were things like the Biden administration\u2019s decision to restart funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, despite long-held suspicions \u2013 since confirmed \u2013 that there were UNRWA staffers with ties to Islamist militant groups.\n\n\u201cThese types of decisions convey a message to our adversaries \u2013 a lack of firm resolve, and a willingness to compromise and accommodate.\n\n\u201cAnd in the face of this kind of message, it\u2019s little wonder that terrorists throughout the Middle East have been emboldened, and have been attacking not just our ally Israel but American assets \u2013 and American soldiers \u2013 in the region.\n\n\u201cAnd I have to wonder whether bodies like the International Criminal Court \u2013 which recently attempted to put Israel leaders \u2013 Israeli leaders, I should say \u2013 in the same class as Hamas terrorists by unlawfully issuing warrants for their arrest \u2013 have also been emboldened by the Biden administration\u2019s waffling.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as China flexes its muscle, Iran continues its proxy war on Israel, and North Korean soldiers join Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine, it\u2019s time for a return to clear American leadership on the world stage.\n\n\u201cAnd that doesn\u2019t mean an America that intervenes in every conflict or dictates terms to everyone.\n\n\u201cWe neither can nor should attempt to become the world\u2019s policeman.\n\n\u201cBut it does mean an America that speaks clearly and doesn\u2019t equivocate.\n\n\u201cThat condemns evil and doesn\u2019t accommodate it.\n\n\u201cAnd an America that projects \u2013 and can deliver \u2013 strength. The kind of strength that will make our adversaries think twice before tangling with us or our allies.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump has made an excellent choice for secretary of state with our colleague Marco Rubio.\n\n\u201cHe is one of our strongest and clearest voices on national security, and between him and President Trump \u2013 and other future members of the Trump administration \u2013 America\u2019s adversaries should be on notice.\n\n\u201cI think there\u2019s already been something of a shift in the air.\n\n\u201cAnd I am hopeful that in the weeks to come we will finally see movement on freeing the remaining Americans and other hostages who were captured by Hamas in its October 7, 2023, attack.\n\n\u201cIt is incredible that these individuals are facing their second \u2013 second \u2013 winter in Gaza.\n\n\u201cAnd President Trump\u2019s statement Monday about his commitment to freeing these hostages immediately should be a warning to Hamas that the United States will no longer tolerate the captivity of her citizens.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the last few years have shown us what a world without clear American leadership looks like.\n\n\u201cI am confident that the next four years will show us what the world looks like with it.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E0E0084C-3AC8-44FA-B6C3-8BB6942AF754"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.052235882729292, "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"}