![Ted Cruz says Russia is invading Ukraine because of Biden's "enormous" mistakes](https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2021/09/30/e79fdaf6-bb2a-40e4-abe8-f693b21c06c3/thumbnail/1200x630g2/1fb7d564219a59f0c06119ec11670a13/gettyimages-1235582562.jpg)
Ted Cruz says Russia is invading Ukraine because of Biden's "enormous" mistakes
CBSN
Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday said Russia is invading Ukraine "because of enormous mistakes that the Biden administration has made."
"What we're seeing right now is the most serious military conflict in Europe since World War II," Cruz told CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa on Thursday. "It is devastating, and unfortunately, I expect it's likely to get worse before it gets better. What is frustrating is that what is happening right now was entirely avoidable. The reason that Russia is invading Ukraine is because of enormous mistakes that the Biden administration has made, and two in particular."
In particular, Cruz, who was interviewed by Costa at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida, blamed the president's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan last summer, claiming it made the Oval Office look weak to America's enemies. He also pointed to the president's earlier decision to waive sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. Russia has long wanted to remake the old Soviet Union, but Cruz argued recent Biden administration actions have made that dream easier.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.