Rubio: Is Biden engaging in an oil quid pro quo with Saudi Arabia?
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio calls out Biden's attempt to get Saudis to delay announcement of production decrease, on 'Hannity.'
President Biden has not left any doubt as to whether politics played a role in his unsuccessful pressuring of Saudi Arabia to delay an OPEC+ announcement of a decrease in oil production until after the American midterm elections, Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News.
Rubio, R-Fla., said there is something unfortunate within the progressive politics of Biden and many in his party that they view importing oil acceptable but developing domestic production dangerous to the environment.
"I believe you're messing around with it for political purposes," Rubio said Thursday. "But I also think this is indicative of how these radical left-wing Marxist misfits that control the Democratic Party have put us in the position that we are now in as a country."
"It leaves us vulnerable, not just on oil, but on all kinds of other things that they refuse to produce in our country, natural gas, all the byproducts that come from that, you name it."
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
Rubio said it is also clear the OPEC+ nations are intentionally "punishing" Biden and by extension the United States, only months after the president famously fist-bumped Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud prior to a summit that many stateside observers deemed a disaster.
The senator, whose state was just ravaged by Hurricane Ian, noted the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that Biden has been tapping into to try to make up for the spike in prices caused in part by his cancelation of domestic projects is supposed to be used following natural disasters or other major disruptions.
"They're not there for midterms. That's what he was using it for. Then we get into this situation now where Saudis and others are acting in their best interest. I think they're doing two things here," he said.
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A sticker of President Joe Biden is placed on a gas pump at an Exxon Station on March 9, 2022, in Lakewood, Colorado. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
"One, they want to set oil prices at a way that is good for them. And at the same time, it's opec+ Russia. But the other is they're doing it to punish America and Joe Biden. And we shouldn't be in this position.
"We are an oil producing country if we want to be the reason why we are not the reason why we are producing a billion, a million barrels of oil a day less than we used to is because the Biden administration will not allow it to be produced."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at the National Conservatism conference in Aventura, Florida on September 12, 2022. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Fox News host Sean Hannity added the entire situation shows it is clear Biden tried to "collude with the Saudis [and] OPEC plus Russia… to prevent" the announcement of decreasing Mideast oil production – which in turn creates higher costs – from becoming public before the election.
"I think the pieces begin to fit," Rubio responded.
"We find ourselves in a position as beggars," the Miami Republican later added. "The most powerful country in the world is now in a position of having to beg these third-rate countries."