Steve Hilton is the presenter of the podcast California Rebel Base and worked as the head of strategy for British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Joe Biden made no bones about his thoughts about Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler during his presidential campaign in 2020.
‘Two years ago, Saudi agents, allegedly acting on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, assassinated and dismembered Saudi dissident, writer, and US citizen Jamal Khashoggi.
We would reevaluate our relationship with the Kingdom under a Biden-Harris administration, seize US backing for Saudi Arabia’s assault in Yemen, and ensure that America does not check its ideals at the door while selling armaments or buying oil.’
I mean, he couldn’t have been more specific, could he?
What a difference a few years and a completely terrible, intellectually incoherent, self-destructive energy plan can make.
The promised reconsideration of “our relationship with the Kingdom” has resulted in an unexpected – and highly undesirable – conclusion for Biden’s activist base.
President Biden is ready to go, empty oil barrel in hand, to meet the ‘pariah’ face to face in July, after candidate Biden claimed in a 2019 Democratic Party debate that he would insist the Saudis ‘pay the price and make them, in reality, the pariah that they are.’
It appears that, rather than’making them pay,’ Biden will pay whatever price is required to persuade the Saudis to salvage his political chances by increasing production of the fossil fuel he recently committed to phase out.
From the Saudi secret police cleaning up the body parts of Jamal Khashoggi to the Saudi Crown Prince cleaning up the trash of Joe Biden’s energy program, we’ve come a long way.
Why?
Because White House officials are allegedly “depressed” about the chances of decreasing costs considerably before November. Biden is enraged by his team’s ideas on exorbitant gas costs.’
Oh. Is it true that they’re depressed?
Biden is displeased.
What about the rest of the human race?
It’s not just the direct impact of the average price of a gallon of gas exceeding $5 for the first time in history (something that, by the way, would be considered a bargain in my home state of California, which was an early adopter of the Democrats’ extremist ‘climate’ zealotry now wreaking havoc across the country).
It’s that, because energy accounts for such a large portion of industrial expenditures, rising fuel prices affect everything else as well.
More costly energy is contributing to the inflation that is making food, clothes, and home products so excruciatingly expensive.
Of course, the Biden administration wants you to believe that Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine is to blame.
In the case of energy, though, the conflict began well before Russia’s invasion on February 24th.
‘I want you to look in my eyes,’ Biden told a climate activist in the New Hampshire crowd at another 2019 campaign event. I promise you, I promise you, we’re going to phase out fossil fuels, and I’m not going to work with them, OK?’
From the beginning, the Biden administration has waged war on American energy, beginning with the rejection of the Keystone project and spreading to every facet of government regulation, from environmental assessments to biofuels regulations.
Biden’s threat to destroy the American fossil fuel sector, like his pledge to make Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, has now collided with reality.
The White House wrote to the CEOs of America’s largest oil and gas corporations, pushing them to increase output, in its latest, perhaps frantic, attempt to do something – anything! – about the impact of rising gas prices.
Biden went so far as to seek for “specific proposals” to solve “urgent” issues.
So much for not wanting to ‘work with them.’
Unfortunately, it’s too late.
There is only so much that American producers can do in a short period of time to have a major influence on the price of oil traded on the international market.
Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, controls around 35% of world oil output.
As a result, Operation Saudi Savior was born.
If we can simply get those ‘pariahs’ in the Middle East to produce more oil, perhaps the world price will fall and US consumers will feel relieved before voting to clear Biden’s clock in the midterm elections.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressured to answer to Khashoggi’s fiancée, who urged Biden to at least question Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “Where is Jamal’s body?” Isn’t he deserving of a dignified funeral? What happened to his assassins?’
‘I can guarantee you, I can assure you, when it comes to human rights, this is something that this president prioritizes,’ Jean-Pierre remarked.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard something like that before.
Oh, yes: ‘I assure you, I guarantee you — fossil fuels will be phased out.’
What does this have to do with Biden’s 2020 commitment that America will not ‘check its morals at the door to sell guns or purchase oil’ under his leadership?
Of course it doesn’t, and the wide chasm between the lofty rhetoric of two years ago and today’s soiled reality exemplifies what is, in many ways, the defining flaw of the disastrous Biden administration.
Biden has always been a weak, unprincipled machine politician who has been pulled around by whoever controls his party’s authority.
Right now, that means the Democrats’ far left activist base, and the Biden administration has lurched to the left on a series of issues – from climate and energy to policing and foreign policy – only to discover that the real-life consequences of ‘progressive’ policies are catastrophically harmful, especially to the working Americans of all races whom Democrats have long taken for granted.
It’s not just the Saudi-American relationship that has highlighted the self-defeating instability that results when effective strategy for advancing our national interests is substituted with vacuous virtue-signaling in foreign policy.
Similarly, Biden’s sanctimonious speech has shattered President Trump’s positive relationship with Mexico, which includes crucial assistance in curbing Central American migrant flows.
Indeed, Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador canceled last week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which was hosted by Biden.
When the much-heralded ‘adults in the room’ are afraid of the activists on Instagram, this is what happens.
As a result, we’re seeing a series of jarring U-turns on issues like defunding the police, fossil fuels, and America’s dealings with regimes like Saudi Arabia.
I support common-sense, pragmatic measures to combat pollution, particularly carbon pollution. I believe that utilizing our foreign policy to promote human rights is a good concept. However, these objectives should be achieved in a way that benefits rather than harms the American people.