Democrats Use Dreaded Filibuster to Block Ted Cruz Bill Sanctioning Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

Democrats used the Senate filibuster, which they are busy trying to eliminate, to block a bill by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Thursday that would have sanctioned companies associated with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The bill had 55 votes.

The filibuster requires 60 votes to end debate and move to a final vote, which meant that despite the 55-44 margin, and the votes of five Democrats in favor, the bill could not advance — a win for President Joe Biden’s approach to talks with Russia.

The Biden administration allowed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to proceed last year — after shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline project in the U.S. to appease environmentalists — saying that the project was too close to completion to reverse.

President Donald Trump had sought to block Nord Stream 2 because it would have made Europe more dependent on Russia’s natural gas, increasing President Vladimir Putin’s leverage in the west and his ability to circumvent pipelines in Ukraine.

Critics were livid at Democrats — and at the establishment media, which pushed the false “Russia collusion” conspiracy theory against Trump while ignoring Democrats’ efforts to appease Russia, even as Putin has amassed troops on the border with Ukraine and threatened to invade.

Democrats in DC spent 4 years saying Trump was a Russian asset.

But Trump sanctions on Russia stopped the opening of the Nord Stream 2 Russian pipeline.

Yesterday, the same Democrats voted to NOT put new sanctions on Russia.

And the media?! They didn’t notice.

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) January 14, 2022

This by the way, is a concrete example of how Democrats' Trump-Russia paranoia was entirely performative.

Trump admin didn't support the pipeline on grounds that it would economically empower Putin. Biden immediately reversed on the issue and a lotta Dems apparently support it. https://t.co/11uk7uCvHh

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 14, 2022

.@tedcruz's bill to punish Russia and help Ukraine was defeated by the Russiagate party with only 45 votes thanks to the terrible, very bad, no good filibuster. https://t.co/5LBGAhrDEA

— Eli Lake (@EliLake) January 14, 2022

The United Press International agency reported: “Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Raphael Warnock of Georgia joined every Senate Republican in voting in favor of the bill.”

President Biden is urging changes to the filibuster to pass Democrats’ election overhaul bills, declaring that those who opposed him were on the wrong side of history, and on the side of racism. In a speech earlier this week demanding filibuster reform to pass the bills, he asked: “Do you want to be the si–  on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.