Looking for more oil from Saudi Arabia since boycotting Russia oil after the Feb. 24 Ukraine War, 79-year-old President Joe Biden has been discouraged from visiting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, primarily for the role he allegedly played in assassinating Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi Oct. 2, 2018. Biden has asked Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to offset the lost of global supplies from boycotting Russian oil. Bin Salman hasn’t returned Biden’s calls, after Biden asked to speak to Bin Salman’s 86-year-old-father father, King Salman. King Salman’s son, Bin Salman, has been the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia for years due to his ailing father’s inability to carry out daily duties as head of state. Biden insulted Bin Salman, asking to speak with King Salman because of the Khashoggi debacle. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, urged Biden not to go.
Schiff thinks holding a grudge against the current leader of Saudi Arabia helps the government’s attempt to make up for lost Russian oil. Biden has put all his eggs into the basket of fighting with Ukrainian forces the Russian Federation. Giving Ukraine unlimited cash-and-arms, Biden stated he hoped to weaken the Russian military to the point it can no longer wage war, in effect a declaration of war on the Kremlin. Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland, that Putin should no longer continue as Russia’s head of state. That view was echoed one month later April 26 by 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who clarified the U.S. goal in Ukraine to weaken the Russian army. But the effect of a protracted Ukraine War against the Russian Federation disrupted oil supplies around the planet. Biden now must beg Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to bring down global prices.
Biden and Democrats plan since taking office was to reverse the energy independence developed under former President Donald Trump. Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. So with America producing less fossil fuel, it could not take a sudden boycott of Russian oil without serious repercussions in domestic oil markets, watching prices nearly double in the last year. Faced with a Midterm election in November that decides the House and Senate, Biden finds himself scrambling to make up for his abysmal approval ratings, now hovering around 40.7% aggregate. High gas prices and soaring inflation has soured voters’ mood with Biden’s performance on the economy. Schiff thinks that shaking hands with Bin Salman would infuriate Biden’s base, not realizing their already irked over soaring pump prices.
Whatever happened with Khashoggi, it’s all water under the bridge in today’s proxy war against Russia. As long as Biden keeps sanctions in place boycotting Russian oil, the U.S. and world will experience shortages and spiraling prices. Even in the best case scenario with Saudi Arabia pumping more oil, it won’t come close of making up the lost oil from U.S. and EU sanctions. “I wouldn’t go. I wouldn’t shake his hand. This is someone who butchered an American resident, cut him up into pieces and in the most terrible and premeditated way,” Schiff said, repeating the common Democrat refrain about Bin Salman. Trump walked a fine line dealing with Saudi Arabia at the time the alleged assassination took place. Trump realized that whatever happened to Khashoggi, it couldn’t derail U.S. energy supplies, all because of a possible political hit, regardless of the circumstances.
Schiff was one of Trump’s biggest detractors during his four years in office, promoting, spreading and leaking to the press fake information about Trump’s ties with the Kremlin. Schiff, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded Mach 23, 2019, that Trump was not guilty of conspiring with the Kremlin, insisted he had evidence to prove Trump’s guilt. Schiff never produced any evidence that Trump colluded or in any way conspired with the Russian Federation to win the 2016 presidential election against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. No, Schiff, true to form, urges Biden to avoid Bin Salman, even when the U.S. suffers from spiraling oil and gasoline prices. “Until Saudi Arabia makes radical change in terms of [its] human rights, I wouldn’t want any8ing to do with him,” said Schiff, giving, as usual, extremely bad advice to Biden.
Schiff has been working feverishly on the Jan. 6 report that seeks to blame Trump, his former Cabinet and GOP members of Congress for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. No matter how preposterous, Schiff, and other House Democrats, hope to produce a blockbuster report before the Midterm Elections. Biden’s foreign policy has bludgeoned China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others for human rights abuses, leading to a foreign policy that’s now at war with Russia and on thin ice with China. Schiff wants to continue to the dispute with Bin Salman, rather put Biden’s human rights campaign on hold to help American consumers. Schiff says the U.S. should wean itself off fossil fuels “so we don’t have despots and murders call the shots,” showing how he spews only platitudes to justify his abysmal decision-making. With Schiff’s logic, the White House should have no foreign policy with adversaries.
