Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) left the President’s Department of Justice speechless after berating them with questions on how they continued to allow communist China to initiate cyberattacks against targets within the United States.
Cruz made the same connection to the weak reaction from the administration regarding the cyberattacks linked to Russia earlier this year. The senator made the remarks during the Senate hearing earlier on Tuesday when he questioned Richard Downing, the U.S. Department of Justice Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division.
“China has repeatedly used ransomware and cyber-attacks to harm America,” Cruz said. “Not only has it attacked pipelines in an effort to cause physical damage, but just this year, hackers affiliated with the Chinese government attacked tens of thousands of computers across tens of thousands of organizations, including a significant number of small businesses, towns, cities, and local governments. Once again, unfortunately, the Biden administration responded to extreme threats with extreme weakness.”
“The Biden administration has not imposed any sanctions on China. Instead, the administration announced that it is dropping criminal cases against five Chinese scientists who, with the help of consular officials, hid their affiliations with China’s military in order to infiltrate our nation,” Cruz continued. “Mr. Downing, why is this administration refusing to prosecute Chinese scientists who lied about their ties to the Chinese military in order to come to this country and gain access to information?”
“I would have to say that from my position in the criminal division, I am not responsible for those decisions,” Downing responded. “However, it is something that I’d be happy to take back and get you an answer.”
“And let me ask anyone on the panel. Do you have an answer as to why the administration has not sanctioned China for repeated cyber-attacks over and over and over again against the United States?” Cruz pressed.
After several moments of silence, Cruz responded: “Well, I think that’s a question that the administration should answer. Showing weakness to China and weakness to Russia only invites more aggression and more cyber-attacks attacking our nation.”
Sen. Ted Cruz to DOJ, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Secret Service: "Do you have an answer as to why the administration has not sanctioned China for repeated cyber attacks over and over and over again against the United States?"
Crickets in response. pic.twitter.com/hZCAdFdwCz
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 27, 2021
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