So, is President Joe Biden planning a trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman? We still don’t know because, as usual, getting straight answers out of Biden’s Press Secretary is like pulling hen’s teeth. (Please pardon the mixed metaphor.) If anything, the communications are even worse now that Karine Jean-Pierre has taken over from Jen Psaki. Because of all of the rumors running around suggesting that Biden was desperate enough to bring down gas prices ahead of the election that he would kiss and make up with Saudi Arabia, reporters tried asking about it yesterday. Jean-Pierre said in no uncertain terms that the administration had “no travel to announce today.” She then turned around and said there was “a visit in the works.” So would Biden be talking to the Saudis about oil production and prices? Of course not! (Fox News)
The White House on Monday said oil production is “not the focus” of conversations Biden administration officials will have with Saudi Arabia.
“I’m saying it’s not, it’s not, it’s not the focus,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, adding that it is “not… on the agenda.”
“That’s something for OPEC to decide, clearly. Saudi Arabia chairs that, and so, we just want to be very clear on that,” she added.
With regard to oil or gas prices, Jean-Pierre said, “We do not get involved in any of that.”
We’ll get to the rest of this word salad in a moment, but here’s the video of the press conference queued up to the questions about Saudi Arabia. It truly needs to be heard to be believed.
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As you can see, when Jean-Pierre gets the question about whether or not oil production or prices will be brought up, she literally starts stuttering. “I’m saying it’s not, it’s not, it’s not the focus… it’s not… on the agenda.”
Well, that’s rather odd, isn’t it? If it’s “not the focus” that would imply that it’s a secondary topic of discussion. But if it’s “not on the agenda,” then it won’t be brought up at all. Even though we’re talking about Saudi Arabia and OPEC. So which is it?
How about oil and gas prices? “That is not the conversations that we have with Saudi Arabia. That is not part of our agenda when we have discussions with them.”
Does the White House honestly expect anyone to believe this load of malarkey? Biden is still in panic-mode over gas prices and the effect they are having on the Democrats’ poll numbers. He’s emptying our strategic reserves at an alarming rate, but to the great surprise of nobody who knows how the oil and gas industry actually operates, it’s not doing anything. So now he’s apparently playing nice with Saudi Arabia and OPEC+, of which Russia is a member.
But wasn’t Joe Biden supposed to be “holding the Saudis accountable” over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? He previously promised that he was going to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are.” For a pariah, they seem to be quite popular with this administration all of a sudden.
Given how secretive the “most transparent administration ever” has been thus far, I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction. Biden will indeed travel to Saudi Arabia in the near future, but press access will be limited at times. And if he suddenly disappears for a few hours with nothing listed on his official schedule as given to reporters, he will be meeting with Mohammad bin Salman. And you’re never going to hear about it.
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