Senator Ted Cruz Holds Up CIA Nomination To Force Biden To Stop Nord Stream 2

Senator Ted Cruz (R.-Texas) says he is holding up the confirmation of the next Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief in order to pressure Joe Biden to stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. “I’ll release my hold when the Biden admin meets its legal obligation to report and sanction the ships and companies building [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s pipeline,” Cruz said in a tweet on March 6 as he confirmed an earlier Bloomberg story. Biden in January picked William Burns, a career Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Russia in the 2000s, to be the next head of the…