After launching a war against domestic oil and gas production, President Joe Biden made a high profile trip to Saudi Arabia over the summer begging for an increase in OPEC oil output. Last week, OPEC denied the request and gas prices in the United States are climbing again just in time for Election Day.
Instead of rescinding a series of executive orders severely limiting domestic oil permitting to ease the burden at the pump, Biden is threatening to withhold arms sales to Saudi Arabia and impose "consequences" unless the Kingdom submits to his production demands. Biden is furious, has promised "consequences," and administration officials have repeatedly accused the country of siding with Russia.
President Biden on Saudi Arabia: "When the House and the Senate come back there are going to be some consequences for what they've done." pic.twitter.com/QHDEHJQUue
— The Hill (@thehill) October 12, 2022
Biden is making the move for political reasons in an effort to help Democrats at the polls in November, which many have noticed sounds a lot like a quid pro quo. The same kind of quid pro quo Democrats impeached President Donald Trump over when he briefly withheld lethal aid to Ukraine in 2019 while asking for an investigation into Hunter Biden's well documented corruption in the country.
This looks an awful lot like the president of the United States threatening to remove weaponry from a purported ally unless that ally performs actions that help that president politically in advance of an election. Wasn't Trump impeached for that?
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 13, 2022
I'm old enough to remember when DC went into full hysteria over a suggested Quid Pro Quo.
— Robert Myers 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@Rondo2) October 13, 2022
This is as blatant a Quid Pro Quo as there is, and possibly election interference and an FEC violation essentially soliciting a foreign donation for help in not just 1 election but dozens. https://t.co/Of9pLNNFFp
Meanwhile, the Saudi's are pushing back and issued a lengthy official statement through the Saudi Embassy in Washington D.C. Wednesday evening.
An official at the Foreign Ministry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stated that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has viewed the statements issued about the Kingdom following the OPEC+ decision announced on October 5, 2022, which have described the decision as the Kingdom taking sides in international conflicts and that it was politically motived against the United States of America.
The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would first like to express its total rejection of these statements that are not based on facts, and which are based on portraying the OPEC+ decision out of its purely economic context. This decision was taken unanimously by all member states of the OPEC+ group."
The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms that any attempts to distort the facts about the Kingdom’s position regarding the crisis in Ukraine are unfortunate, and will not change the Kingdom’s principled position, including its vote to support UN resolutions regarding the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, based on the Kingdom’s position on the importance for all countries to adhere to the United Nations Charter, principles of international law, and the Kingdom's rejection of any infringement on the sovereignty of countries over their territories.
The Kingdom stresses that while it strives to preserve the strength of its relations with all friendly countries, it affirms its rejection of any dictates, actions, or efforts to distort its noble objectives to protect the global economy from oil market volatility.
Resolving economic challenges requires the establishment of a non-politicized constructive dialogue, and to wisely and rationally consider what serves the interests of all countries.
The Kingdom affirms that it view its relationship with the United States of America as a strategic one that serves the common interests of both countries. The Kingdom also stresses the importance of building on the solid pillars upon which the Saudi-US relationship had stood over the past eight decades. These pillars include mutual respect, enhancing common interests, actively contributing to preserve regional and international peace and security, countering terrorism and extremism, and achieving prosperity for the peoples of the region.