(CNS News) -- Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said President Joe Biden is "groveling to the Saudis" today because of the anti-energy "mess" his administration has produced. But he added that it is “perfectly appropriate” for the president to discuss the issue with the Saudis.
On Thursday, CNS News asked the senator, “Is it appropriate for President Biden to travel to Saudi Arabia and meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman?”
Cruz replied: “Saudi Arabia is an important ally. Part of the reason that Biden is having to travel there is that for the last year and a half, he’s bent over backwards to alienate that ally, which has not been in America’s national security interests.”
“Now, Biden is groveling to the Saudis, asking them to produce more oil, after Biden has spent a year and a half hammering U.S. oil and gas production,” said Cruz. “So, it’s a mess, but it’s perfectly appropriate for the president to have a conversation with the Saudis.”
Biden is expected to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) today, July 15, in a trip many suspect is to secure more oil because domestic gasoline prices are very high. According to U.S. intelligence reports and other investigations, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) approved a plan to kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The writer was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
When campaigning in 2020, Biden said, “I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuels.”
Soon after taking office, Biden took action to reduce domestic production of oil, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was expected to carry 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska, according to CNBC.
Biden claimed that oil is not the purpose of this week’s trip. “The commitments from the Saudis don’t relate to anything having to do with energy,” he said. “It happens to be a larger meeting taking place in Saudi Arabia. That’s the reason I’m going. And it has to do with national security for them — for Israelis.”
In March 2022, it was reported that the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refused to take calls from Biden – calls that likely had to do with securing allies against Russia and ensuring continued access to oil. The crown princes rejected the calls due to “unhappiness about Biden’s policies in the region,” reported the Times of Israel.
In a July 10 commentary in the Washington Post, Biden wrote, “When I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values,” he said.
The president also wrote, “My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad.”
A response-commentary was published in The Post on July 11, saying, “A grip-and-grin photograph with MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] signals to autocrats everywhere that you can quite literally get away with murdering a journalist as long as you possess a natural resource the United States wants badly enough.”
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tweeted, “Why would President Biden plead for more Saudi Arabian oil when we could be producing more domestic energy right here in America? Our country should be producing more oil by Americans, for Americans.”
Why would President Biden plead for more Saudi Arabian oil when we could be producing more domestic energy right here in America?
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 12, 2022
Our country should be producing more oil by Americans, for Americans.
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