President Joe Biden is weak — both physically and politically.
During the presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly said he would restore America’s name in the world (Democrats always deride Republicans and claim foreign leaders despise them). He’s done just the opposite.
Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine while Donald Trump was president, but he felt Biden was impotent — wouldn’t stop him and couldn’t rally foreign support sufficient to thwart an invasion.
China has been eating Biden’s lunch, openly courting Russia and Iran and snubbing U.S. efforts to close the massive trade gap. And Saudi Arabia all but laughed in the president’s face when he flew there to beg for oil.
Biden was hoping for the Saudis to ramp up production by 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day. They agreed to an increase — but just 100,000 barrels (America uses about 20 million barrels a day).
Then earlier this month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced it would slash production by 2 million barrels a day. That announcement came just a month before the U.S. midterm elections.
A White House leaker said Biden had actually begged the Saudis not to cut production before the elections, and the White House on Thursday put its spin on the leak.
“We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
Biden has accused gas companies in the U.S. of price gouging and blasts OPEC for cutting production as gas prices soar. But he’s so weak that Saudi leaders came out and ripped him a new one.
The Foreign Ministry blasted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s claim that the October 5 action by OPEC+ “align[ed] their energy policy with Russia’s war aims and against the American people.”
“[T]hese statements … are not based on facts, and …. are based on portraying the OPEC+ decision out of its purely economic context,” the ministry said. “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.”
The Biden administration has repeatedly threatened “consequences” against Saudi Arabia over the production cut, but so far, nothing.
The Saudi diss came just three months after Biden visited the kingdom and fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in what was clearly an open effort to spur production.
It backfired.
Biden talked tough in November 2019 when he faced off with other Democrats at a presidential nomination debate in November 2019. The subject at hand was Saudi Arabia and the killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
“I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We were going to in fact make them pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are.”
Biden went further, saying there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”
But he’s far too weak to do anything now, and both the Saudis — and Putin — know that.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.