- ‘Don’t Call For De-escalation’: Big Shocker From US’ Biden Admin; Diplomats Warned On Gaza War Hindustan Times
- US State Department Warns Diplomats Not To Call For “De-Escalation” In Gaza: Report NDTV
- The State Department Doesn’t Want Diplomats to Call for “De-Escalation” or an “End to Violence” in Gaza The New Republic
- US requests delay to Israel’s ground operation in Gaza: Local media Anadolu Agency | English
- State Department diplomats warned not to call for ceasefire, calm, end to violence — report The Times of Israel
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Tag Archives: admin
Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies – CNN
- Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies CNN
- Appeals Court Rules White House Overstepped 1st Amendment on Social Media The New York Times
- 5th Circuit rules Biden administration violated First Amendment The Washington Post
- Appeals court scales back order squelching Biden administration contact with social media platforms ABC News
- Biden administration violated First Amendment over COVID-19 content on social media, court of appeals rules Fox News
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Weekly Jobless Claims Higher Than Expected, US Big Techs Face Difficulty Downsizing In Europe, Biden Admin Finalizes Rule To Crack Down Deceptive Medicare Advantage Advertising: Today’s Top Stories – Yahoo Finance
- Weekly Jobless Claims Higher Than Expected, US Big Techs Face Difficulty Downsizing In Europe, Biden Admin Finalizes Rule To Crack Down Deceptive Medicare Advantage Advertising: Today’s Top Stories Yahoo Finance
- Initial jobless claims land at 228000 CNBC Television
- AUD/USD drops for three straight days as Wall Street gains offset by risk aversion FXStreet
- US weekly jobless claims drop; revisions suggest labor market looser Yahoo Finance
- VIDEO: Initial claims data readjustments from seasonals influencing the major currencies ForexLive
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Biden admin bragged about building ‘made-in-America’ EV charging network, then waived ‘Buy America’ rules – Fox Business
- Biden admin bragged about building ‘made-in-America’ EV charging network, then waived ‘Buy America’ rules Fox Business
- Tesla Drivers Worry About Wait Times as Elon Musk Opens Up Supercharger Network The Wall Street Journal
- Tesla owners were furious when Elon Musk slashed prices. Now they have to share their charging stations with you and they hate it Fortune
- Tesla Announced It’s Giving a Huge Boost to the Competition. Why It’s a Brilliant Power Play Inc.
- Secretary Buttigieg: There’s a great opportunity here with Tesla Yahoo Finance
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House Republicans keeping promise to lead extensive investigations into Biden admin
House Republicans are keeping their campaign promise to investigate the Biden administration, as top committees are already launching extensive probes into President Biden, his family and areas of his presidency just days after being formally sworn into the 118th Congress.
Lawmakers were sworn into the new Congress less than two weeks ago, after a week-long, multi-ballot battle to hand Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the speaker’s gavel.
MCCARTHY RIPS BIDEN DOCUMENT DISCOVERY HANDLING, CALLS OUT DOJ’S ‘HYPOCRISY’ AS A ‘WEAPONIZATION’
Republicans under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are opening up several lanes of investigation into the Biden administration. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Now, with McCarthy at the helm as speaker of the House, top Republican lawmakers have taken their posts as committee chairs, and are already getting to work.
House Judiciary Committee
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, vowed to investigate allegations of politicization and bias at the FBI and the Justice Department as soon as it became clear the GOP would hold a House majority and gain the authority to issue subpoenas.
On Friday, Jordan launched his first formal investigation into the president’s “mishandling” of classified records and the Justice Department’s investigation into the matter.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has said his first investigation would be into the classified documents found in Biden’s home and former office space.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
After a second stash of classified documents was found inside the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, Attorney General Merrick Garland escalated the Justice Department’s ongoing review to a formal special counsel probe, and chose former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur to lead the investigation.
The first documents were found inside the Washington D.C., offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank on Nov. 2, 2022. Additional classified documents were found at Biden’s Delaware home over the weekend, the White House counsel’s office said.
JIM JORDAN LAUNCHES FIRST INVESTIGATION AS JUDICIARY CHAIR INTO BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCS SCANDAL
Jordan is questioning not only Biden’s “mishandling” and “unauthorized possession” of classified documents, but also the “circumstances” of the appointment of Hur as special counsel.
Jordan is questioning the alleged concealment of the information by the DOJ, especially as the White House has admitted that the first batch of classified records were found at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022 – before the midterm elections – and not publicly disclosed until January.
President Biden and his staff may soon be forced to answer questions about the classified documents found in Biden’s home and office.
(Adam Schultz/The White House via AP, File)
“It is unclear when the Department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections,” Jordan wrote in a letter to Garland, notifying him of the committee’s investigation on Friday. “It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material. The Department’s actions here appear to depart from how it acted in similar circumstances.”
Robert Hur has been named special counsel to investigate the presence of documents with classified markings found at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington and at an office in Washington.
(AP Photo/Steve Ruark, File)
Jordan says the FBI’s unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022, in which agents seized classified documents, shows there is a double standard in the government.
Jordan pointed to the “publicly available evidence of President Trump’s voluntary cooperation,” and said Garland “personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for excessive and unprecedented access to his private residence.”
JORDAN SEEKS TESTIMONY FROM GARLAND, WRAY, OTHERS IN HOUSE JUDICIARY PROBES OF DOJ, FBI
At the time, Biden slammed Trump for being “irresponsible” for keeping classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is accused of having a double standard when it comes to investigating classified documents held by President Biden and former President Trump.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Jordan also successfully established a new Judiciary subcommittee – the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government – which he will chair.
Jordan’s subcommittee is expected to investigate now only how the executive branch has gathered information on American citizens, but also how it has worked with other bodies – including private sector companies – to “facilitate action against American citizens.”
House Oversight Committee
House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is leading an investigation into the Biden family’s domestic and international business dealings.
Comer said investigating how the Biden family “peddled influence and access around the world for profit” is a “top priority” for the new GOP House majority.
OVERSIGHT CHAIR COMER REIGNITES GOP’S ‘TOP PRIORITY’ PROBE INTO HUNTER BIDEN, SETS HEARING WITH TWITTER EXECS
Specifically, Comer is leading an investigation into the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and Big Tech’s suppression of damaging information on the Biden family businesses ahead of the 2020 election.
Rep. James Comer is chairman of the House Oversight Committee in the new GOP majority.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Comer has already written to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding details about questionable business dealings involving Hunter Biden, his associates and other Biden family members that have been flagged by U.S. financial institutions.
The lawmaker also sent letters Wednesday to former top Twitter executives Yoel Roth, Vijaya Gadde and James Baker, inviting them to participate in a committee hearing the week of Feb. 6 to investigate their “role in suppressing Americans’ access to information about the Biden family on Twitter shortly before the 2020 election.”
Fox News first reported in December 2020 that Hunter Biden was a subject/target of the grand jury investigation, a well-placed government source told Fox News. According to the source, a “target” means that there is a “high probability that person committed a crime,” while a “subject” is someone who they “don’t know for sure” has committed a crime.
HUNTER BIDEN PROBE: 2022 MARKED FOURTH YEAR — AND COUNTING — OF INVESTIGATION
A source familiar with the investigation said the suspicious activity reports (SARs) involved funds from “China and other foreign nations.”
President Biden waves alongside his son Hunter Biden after attending Mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, South Carolina, on Aug. 13, 2022.
(Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss is leading the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Sources told Fox News last fall that federal investigators were weighing whether to charge Hunter with various tax and foreign lobbying violations, false statements and more.
President Biden has repeatedly denied speaking to Hunter about his business dealings. He has also denied, since the 2020 campaign, having any knowledge about or involvement in his son’s business ventures.
After the midterm elections, President Biden wished House Republicans “lots of luck” if they follow through on their commitments to use a GOP majority to investigate his son.
“Lots of luck in your senior year, as my coach used to say,” Biden joked. “Look, I think the American public wants us to move on and get things done for them.”
He added, “Look, I can’t control what they’re going to do, all I can do is continue to try to make life better for the American people.”
House China Select Committee
Last year, McCarthy announced he would create the China Select Committee, and chose Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., to chair the panel, which is set to focus on threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party to U.S. national security.
MCCARTHY CREATES HOUSE CHINA SELECT COMMITTEE TO CONFRONT CCP THREATS
Red flags flutter in front of the Great Hall of the People on March 4, 2022, in Beijing, China.
(VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
House Republicans and Democrats joined forces and voted overwhelming in favor of the creation of the new committee.
While the committee’s work won’t focus specifically on the president or his son, it will focus on how the Biden administration is approaching the threats posed by the CCP.
McCarthy touted the GOP’s work during his first week as speaker in an appearance on Fox News Channel, calling it “very productive” and citing the investigations, the committees’ work, and the passing of legislation that repealed more than $70 billion put in place under the Inflation Reduction Act that would have allowed the IRS to hire tens of thousands of staff over the next decade.
HOUSE VOTES TO RESCIND BILLIONS IN FUNDING TO THE IRS IN FIRST MAJOR MAJORITY ACTION WITH MCCARTHY AS SPEAKER
Internal Revenue Service federal building Washington, D.C.
(istock)
Reacting specifically to the probe into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, McCarthy said: “we will get to the bottom of this no matter how long it takes us and how hard we have to fight.”
“There’s one thing I think, I hope the American public realized from watching the race for speaker: I will never give up,” the speaker of the House said. “That means I will never give up on you on getting the truth.”
Fox News’ Kelly Laco and Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.
Biden admin pushes back against WTO rejection of Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves discusses the company’s earnings results and provides his outlook for the steel industry on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
The World Trade Organization (WTO) rejected the 2018 tariffs implemented by then-President Donald Trump on foreign steel and aluminum in a Friday ruling that elicited pushback from the Biden administration.
Trump imposed tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods, of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum on the grounds that importing those products threatened U.S. national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
By raising taxes on imported steel and aluminum, the Trump administration sought to protect domestic manufacturers against what it believed was global overproduction – although Canada and Mexico along with several other nations were exempted from the tariffs.
The tariffs angered U.S. allies including the European Union and Japan and led to a trade dispute at the WTO when China, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey challenged the move.
US, EU AGREE TO INTENSIFY TALKS ON ‘GREEN SUBSIDIES’ DISPUTE
At Majestic Steel in Ohio, flat-rolled steel is processed for distribution across the country. (Stephen Goin / Fox News)
In its ruling, the WTO said it was “not persuaded” that the U.S. implemented the tariffs “in time of war or other emergency in international relations” that would justify the tariffs on national security grounds.
The WTO’s decision is unlikely to have much real-world impact. If the U.S. appeals the ruling, it won’t go anywhere as the WTO’s Appellate Body hasn’t functioned for three years due because the U.S. blocked the appointment of new judges.
EU HITS US FOR INFLATION REDUCTION ACT ELECTRIC VEHICLE TAX CREDIT REQUIRING FINAL ASSEMBLY IN NORTH AMERICA
PAYSON, UT – MARCH 22: A worker grinds a weld on a safe that is being manufactured at Liberty Safe Company on March 22, 2022, in Payson, Utah. Liberty Safe has struggled with supply constraints and price increases in their materials used in manufactu ((Photo by George Frey/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
The Biden administration also entered into agreements with the EU, Japan, and the United Kingdom that functionally eliminate the tariffs and replace them with import quotas that negate the taxes on volumes of imported steel and aluminum that fall beneath the threshold. Those trading partners dropped retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. in response to the Biden administration’s changes.
Despite having taken steps to negate the tariffs, the Biden administration took issue with the WTO’s decision and argued it overstepped its authority by ruling against tariffs based on national security concerns.
TAIWAN TALKS TRADE WITH US, BRITAIN AS CHINA TENSIONS LOOM OVER BIDEN-XI MEETING
An electric arc furnace at U. S. Steel’s Fairfield Works. (U.S. Steel)
“The United States strongly rejects the flawed interpretation and conclusions,” said Adam Hodge, spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “The United States has held the clear and unequivocal position, for over 70 years, that issues of national security cannot be reviewed in WTO dispute settlement.″
Hodge said the WTO “has no authority to second-guess’’ the national security decisions of member countries. His statement concluded, “The Biden administration is committed to preserving U.S. national security by ensuring the long-term viability of our steel and aluminum industries, and we do not intend to remove the Section 232 duties as a result of these disputes.”
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United Steelworkers, a trade union representing 850,000 workers, released a statement opposed to the WTO ruling that said, “U.S. actions have been effective. Section 232 relief helped to promote production, investment and job creation, while keeping America safe.”
Critics of the tariffs have argued that protectionist measures make U.S. industries less competitive. A report by the Cato Institute from last year argued the tariffs put U.S. steel consumers at a “major cost disadvantage versus their competition in Europe and elsewhere.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
‘Triple demic’: What is it? Joe Biden admin. resists American Academy of Pediatrics call for RSV, flu and COVID national emergency
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has been resisting calls from pediatric health groups to declare a national emergency because of the “Triple-demic.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association say cases of the flu, COVID-19, and RSV are overwhelming the health system.
Declaration of a national emergency would give providers additional funding as well as more flexibility from regulations to deal with what call a “crisis.”
According to CDC data, the hospitalization rate in all kids for the week of Nov. 12 was twice as high as any other flu season on record.
The White House said the strategic national stockpile has supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment, but no state has requested them yet.
Instead of declaring a national emergency, federal health officials said they are ready to provide assistance to communities in need on a case-by-case basis.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
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Biden admin to ask high court to take up student debt plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration plans to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the president’s student debt cancellation plan, according to a Thursday legal filing warning that Americans will face financial strain if the plan remains stalled in court when loan payments are scheduled to restart in January.
The Justice Department is fighting to keep Biden’s plan alive after it was halted by two federal courts in recent weeks. The agency is asking for quick action to block both rulings and allow the plan to take effect even as it plays out in the nation’s courts.
In a legal filing Thursday, the administration announced plans to appeal one of those rulings, by a federal appeals court in St. Louis, to the nation’s highest court. And it says it’s prepared to appeal the other case if needed.
The White House has said it will prevail, but even some supporters of the plan worry about its chances before a conservative Supreme Court that has scaled back Biden’s authority in other ways, including in a June decision curbing the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to limit power plan emissions.
Biden’s plan promises $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness to those with incomes of less than $125,000, or households earning less than $250,000. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, are eligible for an additional $10,000 in relief.
Keeping the debt relief on hold would leave the government with an “unnecessarily perilous choice,” the administration argued in its filing. If it restarts student loan payments as planned on Jan. 1, millions of Americans will get billed for debt that was promised to be canceled. But if the government extends the payment pause, it will cost billions of dollars in lost revenue.
It builds on arguments the administration made in other filings this week, warning that many Americans won’t be able to pay their student debt bills in January if the cancellation plan remains halted.
For typical borrowers, monthly payments would be $200 to $300 higher than they would be if Biden’s plan goes through, the Education Department said. The strain could lead to soaring default rates, which have increased by an average of twentyfold in the wake of other natural disasters.
“We anticipate there could be an historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Education Undersecretary James Kvaal said in a Tuesday filing. “This could result in one of the harms that the one-time student loan debt relief program was intended to avoid.”
In its latest filing, the Justice Department asks an appeals court to lift a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman striking down Biden’s plan. Pittman, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and is based in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled last week that Biden’s plan oversteps his presidential authority and usurps Congress’ powers to make laws.
It stemmed from a lawsuit brought by two borrowers who are not eligible for relief under the parameters of Biden’s plan. The program was separately halted by a St. Louis court after six Republican-led states said it would harm financial institutions.
Almost 26 million people already have applied for the relief, with 16 million approved, but the Education Department stopped accepting and processing applications last week after the plan was ruled illegal.
Biden’s plan has drawn a flurry of legal challenges, which have seen mixed results. Opponents of debt forgiveness have asked the Supreme Court to intervene at least twice after their cases failed in lower courts. The Supreme Court rejected both requests.
The barrage of lawsuits has thrown Biden’s plan, which was meant to deliver a major campaign promise, into jeopardy. It’s now uncertain whether 40 million borrowers who were promised debt relief will have to start making payments on that debt in January.
The biggest risk is for 18 million borrowers who were told their entire loan balance would be canceled. Even if payments restart, those borrowers might think they’re in the clear and ignore the bills, the Education Department has warned.
Borrowers who fall behind on payments can face heavy consequences, including damage to their credit scores and the withholding of wages and tax refunds.
Advocates and some Democrats in Congress are pressuring Biden to extend the payment pause until all legal challenges are resolved, despite his previous assurance that the freeze would end after Dec. 31.
In a Tuesday filing, the Education Department said it’s “examining all available options.” But it warned that extending the pause could cost the federal government “several billion dollars a month in unrecovered loan revenue.”
The freeze already has cost the federal government more than $100 billion in revenue, according to a July report by the Government Accountability Office. Critics caution that another extension could worsen inflation and increase the risk of economic recession.
In a separate action targeting student debt, the Education and Justice departments announced a new policy aiming to make it easier for borrowers to get student loans canceled in bankruptcy court.
When borrowers in bankruptcy try to get their federal student loans canceled, lawyers for the government have typically moved to block it.
Advocates have long complained that only a tiny fraction of borrowers in bankruptcy succeed in getting their student loans erased, and many lawyers won’t even take those cases on. As a presidential candidate, Biden promised to fix the problem.
The Justice Department on Thursday sent new guidance to its attorneys clarifying when they can support a borrower’s request for student debt forgiveness. Judges still have the final say, but the department said its guidance will lead to “fairer, more consistent results.”
Separately, a federal judge on Wednesday approved an Education Department settlement that will cancel $6 billion in student debt for borrowers who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges. The deal was proposed in June but was delayed amid a challenge by several schools.
A federal judge in San Francisco concluded that the settlement is fair. Advocates and the Biden administration applauded the approval, while a for-profit college industry group promised to appeal the decision.
Under the settlement, the Education Department agreed to cancel loans for about 200,000 borrowers who went to one of more than 150 for-profit colleges and later applied for cancellation because of misconduct by their schools.
It stems from a 2019 lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of intentionally stalling the loan relief program while it rewrote the rules.
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Biden admin releases initial student loan handout application weeks before midterms
Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn reacts to the IRS going after the gig economy and President Biden’s student loan handout on ‘Kudlow.’
President Biden’s administration rolled out an application site Friday for the White House’s student loan handout program.
The website, still in beta, allows individuals eligible for student loan forgiveness to submit self-certifying applications for the debt relief.
The website and debt forgiveness application process are currently being handled by the Department of Education.
HARVARD’S ENDOWMENT HAS FIRST YEAR OF NEGATIVE RETURNS SINCE 2016
President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Aug. 24 in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci / AP Images)
The student debt handout, which was announced by the White House in August and is estimated to cost over $500 billion, qualifies those with a gross income of $125,000 as individuals or $250,000 for couples who file joint taxes.
Federal Pell Grant recipients are eligible to receive up to $20,000, while non-Pell Grant recipients are eligible for up to $10,000. These qualifications are listed as a disclosure at the top of the application webpage.
BIDEN’S STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT COST $426 BILLION, BOOSTED 2022 BUDGET DEFICIT TO $1.4 TRILLION: CBO
The announcement of the massive taxpayer-funded loan handout was met with sharp criticism from Republicans and independents.
FILE: Activists attend a rally outside of the White House to call on U.S. President Joe Biden to cancel student debt on July 27, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Several lawsuits have been filed in response, including one in Missouri that is set for a federal court hearing on Wednesday. Legal arguments focus on whether the executive branch has the authority to hand out such a significant sum.
THE NEXT US DEBT CRISIS: MAKING HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS IN INTEREST PAYMENT
The policy has been largely celebrated in Biden’s own party, with many commentators speculating the loan forgiveness could be a major shake-up ahead of the midterms.
President Biden speaks about lowering costs for American families at Irvine Valley Community College, in Irvine, California, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster / AP Newsroom)
However, members of the Democratic Party further to the left than Biden have said the measure doesn’t go far enough, demanding full student loan forgiveness for all borrowers.
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Borrowers on average in the U.S. owe $37,667 in student loans according to the Education Data Initiative, though amounts owed can vary based degree and location.
The administration also said it considers the plan to be “fully paid for” by 2022 revenue earnings alone, which are on pace to lower the U.S. deficit by $1.7 trillion.
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Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.
Saudis say Biden admin requested oil production cut to come after midterms
President Biden’s administration urged Saudi Arabia to delay cutting oil production by one month, putting it behind the midterm elections, the country said Thursday.
The Saudi government, which leads the OPEC oil conglomerate, rejected appeals from the U.S. last week and moved forward with cutting oil production, potentially causing gas prices to spike in the U.S. before Election Day.
“The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US administration that all economic analysis indicates that postponing the Opec+ decision by a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” read a Thursday statement from the Saudis, according to the Guardian.
The Biden administration responded to the decision with outrage, declaring Wednesday that the U.S. would “reassess” its relationship with the Saudis.
SEN. BOB MENENDEZ CALLS FOR END TO ALL COOPERATION WITH SAUDI ARABIA OVER OPEC+ OIL CUT
President Biden speaks during a rally hosted by the Democratic National Committee at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, on Aug. 25, 2022.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
President Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrive for a photo during the Jeddah Security and Development Summit (GCC+3) at a hotel in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.
(MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre went so far as to accuse the Saudis of siding with Russia on Tuesday. She announced Biden’s plans to take a step back from the long U.S. alliance with the Saudi government, though both the president and the administration have refused to offer details on potential actions.
AFTER OPEC OIL CUT, WASHINGTON POST CLAIMS BIDEN’S FOREIGN POLICY WITH SAUDI ARABIA HAS ‘FAILED’ ‘BADLY’
In addition to potential electoral fallout in the U.S., many European countries are facing strained energy supplies this year as Russia has limited exports in retaliation to Western economic sanctions over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We believe by the decision that OPEC+ made last week, [Saudi Arabia is] certainly aligning themselves with Russia,” Jean-Pierre said during a Tuesday briefing at the White House. “And right now, this is not the time to be aligning with Russia, especially with this brutal, unprecedented war that they started in Ukraine.”
Biden’s allies in Congress are also pushing for him to make a move against the Saudis. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called on the White House to “immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia” on Monday. He added that the U.S. should consider cutting off arms sales to the country.
A flame burns off waste gas at Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and terminal in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia.
(Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“There simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict — either you support the rest of the free world in trying to stop a war criminal from violently wiping off an entire country off of the map, or you support him,” Menendez wrote. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia chose the latter in a terrible decision driven by economic self-interest.”
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Biden himself confirmed that he is exploring “consequences” for Saudi Arabia in a recent interview.
“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview released Tuesday. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be consequences.”