The Associated Press reported Tuesday morning that President Biden will ban imports of Russian oil, less than 24 hours after Jen Psaki sought to minimize the impact of the United States' share of the oil Russia exports and following a tense series of conversations between the White House and Democrat leaders on Capitol Hill.
Whether you agree with the ban or not, one thing is clear: Biden didn't lead on this decision. His team has been cagey at best when questions have come up about why Russian oil hadn't yet been banned amid multiple rounds of sanctions levied against Russian government officials and oligarchs. But the wheels really came off when the White House learned that the House Ways and Means Committee had been working on a bill over the weekend to ban Russian oil imports — from a press release issued Sunday night that was quietly removed some five minutes later.
According to Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich, the decision to take down the press release on the legislation and not introduce the bill on Monday was due to a call from the White House to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). What unfolded next is a whole new level of "Dems in Disarray."
Apparently, Pelosi still wanted to move ahead with the legislation, likely looking to notch a bipartisan legislative victory for House Democrats before the midterm elections. So even after Ways and Means removed their press release on the legislation and held the bill back on Monday, lawmakers resumed their efforts Monday night. Then the White House found out and called Pelosi again. She didn't agree to stop the bill, so then the President of the United States himself, at 9:30pm, called Pelosi to ask her to stop.
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She was “not moved by their arguments” and her office told the WH staff they would be pushing ahead – so around 9:30 last night President Biden himself called Pelosi and asked her not to do it.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) March 8, 2022
Even Joe Biden couldn't talk Pelosi down, apparently, so then the White House escalated its opposition by calling Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to try and get him to convince Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to withdraw support for the legislation in his chamber and halt legislative progress.
Pelosi, I’m told, still did want to move ahead. So the White House then targeted Sen Wyden via Schumer, to get him to pull out on the Senate side so it would all fall apart.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) March 8, 2022
Why, you may ask, would the White House go to all this frantic effort to kill a plan they on Tuesday embraced? Ol' Joe Biden didn't want to look weak and not in control. Again, according to Heinrich, lawmakers believe the Biden administration didn't want to look like they failed to act decisively and were forced into making the decision to ban Russian oil imports by Congress.
They believe this is because the WH did not want to appear that they had been boxed in by Congress on this issue – but it’s a snapshot of the friction between the WH and House Dems beneath the surface.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) March 8, 2022
Wasn't it Joe Biden who said he'd be a unifier and make bipartisanship a key priority of his administration? Well, there's another broken Biden promise. And another example of Biden's failure to lead in a crisis. And another instance of Democrats being in such disarray that they're unable to get out of their own way to get something done.
As Matt Whitlock pointed out, Biden and his team are "incapable of decisive action unless they are forced."
Oh my gosh this color is phenomenal.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 8, 2022
The White House worked to stop Congress from a deal to ban Russian oil for days, even Pelosi was like “you guys are dumb we are doing this” and here we are.
The Biden administration is incapable of decisive action unless they are forced. https://t.co/yVze0Afes6
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