If Saudi Arabia’s claim that President Joe Biden sought to delay oil production cuts to boost Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterms is true, his new pledge to punish the Kingdom sounds like the kind of quid pro quo that got former President Trump impeached, Ben Shapiro said.
The Daily Wire co-founder and podcast and radio host made the point on Twitter, likening Biden’s actions and alleged motive to when Trump was impeached for, according to Democrats, condition aid to Ukraine to the country’s government investigating Hunter Biden’s dealings there. Trump was impeached over the matter, although the Senate acquitted him.
“So, Joe Biden refuses to say whether he would support cutting off arms supplies to Saudi Arabia after the Saudis rejected his request to increase oil supply in a slowing economy — a request made for a specified period of time, until right after the election,” Shapiro tweeted Thursday. “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?”
So Joe Biden refuses to say whether he would support cutting off arms supplies to Saudi Arabia after the Saudis rejected his request to increase oil supply in a slowing economy — a request made for a specified period of time, until right after the election.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 13, 2022
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump after a whistleblower claimed he threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid from Ukraine in a July 25, 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump wanted Zelensky to order prosecutors to investigate Hunter Biden, who had scored a lucrative no-show job with Ukrainian energy company while his then-vice president father handled the White House’s Ukraine portfolio for the Obama administration.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, the most powerful member of OPEC, said it will cut daily oil production by two million barrels just as much of the world grapples with rising fuel costs. In a statement, the Kingdom said Thursday it had refused the Biden administration’s request to delay the action for a month, which would put it just beyond the November 8 midterms.
“… the Government of the Kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the U.S. Administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the statement.
Biden has not said exactly what he would do to punish the Saudis after being rebuffed, but the U.S. supplies the Kingdom with hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid.
“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” Biden said of Saudi Arabia in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired earlier this week. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be — there will be consequences.”
The White House sought to paint the Saudis’ decision as aligning with Russia to undermine Western support of Ukraine and said it would “reassess” the U.S relationship with Saudi Arabia in light of the Kingdom’s refusal to delay production cuts by a month.
Shapiro was not the only one to invoke the Latin phrase meaning “this for that.”
“Quid Pro Quo?” tweeted Lawyers for Laws. “Joe Biden Pressured Saudi’s to Not cut oil production until after Midterms. Saudis defied. Now Joe threatens to retaliate-cancel Military Aid.”