Joe Biden Does a Shocking U-Turn on Saudi Arabia
When Joe Biden came into office, he promised to make Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (commonly referred to as “MBS”) a “pariah” on the world stage. That was in response to the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Muslim Brotherhood acolyte that also moonlit as a “journalist” for The Washington Post.
That’s what makes the Biden administration’s latest move so peculiar. In what is a pretty shocking u-turn, they are now offering public support for MBS, saying that he has legal immunity from any lawsuits related to the act.
We can chalk this up to another situation where Biden’s rhetoric turned out to be nothing but hot air. As I’ve said many times, he’s the 24-year-old who would show up to a high school prom to brag about his exploits. Biden is Forrest Gump but nothing he says is actually true. He always puts himself at the center of the story as a fighter ready to take on injustice. In the end, he’s always revealed to just be another useless, big-talking politician who wouldn’t know principle if it punched him in the face.
Then there’s the energy crisis Biden has helped propagate that has also made this capitulation to MBS necessary. Because he’s essentially shut down new federal leases (shouting about doing so again just prior to the mid-terms) and has declared war on the oil companies, OPEC is more powerful than ever. Their recent production cut has left Biden scrambling to keep the oil flowing, and one of those is playing nice with the Saudis after previously trashing them.
It’s pathetic, but it has to happen because the president’s policies have been so disastrous. It’s also a complete betrayal of Biden’s biggest allies: The mainstream media.
You’ll be surprised to learn that The Washington Post, which waged a crusade against Donald Trump for being nice to MBS, is completely silent (as of this writing) on Biden going much further in protecting the Saudi crown prince.
All the journalists were too busy on Thursday evening saying their goodbyes on Twitter, convinced the site was going to shut down because some ex-employees cried to Reuters, to comment on Biden’s turn. That really shows you where their priorities are, doesn’t it? When Trump is in office, they are warriors fighting the good fight, ever hurtling toward justice. When Biden is in office, they suddenly lose their will to speak out. How weird and completely unexpected.
In the end, Biden playing nice with the Saudis is the right move. The US is facing a diesel shortage and the last thing we need is further issues on the energy front. Still, it’s worth noting how hypocritical these people are, especially when they use their hypocrisy to get elected to high office.
We reported earlier that the Biden team had made a controversial move to shield Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) from a lawsuit brought regarding the murder of Jamal Kashoggi. Biden had previously claimed that he wanted to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” nation. But then, after Biden attacked our energy industry, he went hat in hand to Saudi Arabia, fist-bumped MBS, and begged for more oil production from OPEC+. As we also reported, Biden sought to have any OPEC+ cut in production postponed so it wouldn’t affect our country until after the election, in a blatant effort to try to save the election for the Democrats. Now, in response to a request from the judge in the lawsuit, the Biden State Department has issued a letter to the DOJ that MBS should be treated as a head of state and as such should have legal immunity.
As the Washington Post observed, this was “a protection that even President Donald Trump’s administration didn’t offer.” Imagine how angry they have to be when they say that. Trump, of course, didn’t do that and he also never fist-bumped him either. People on the left had a meltdown over this move by Biden, considering it, not surprisingly, a betrayal of what he had previously said.
Biden’s team tried to fall back on claiming it was just a legal decision, that this was how they had treated leaders in the past.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if Biden had been involved in the decision at all. Notice how she ducks the question, falling back on the claim that it’s just a “legal decision.”
That would seem to be a simple question. So if she wouldn’t respond, can we, therefore, assume the answer was yes? That Biden didn’t want to step on MBS when he was begging him for oil? That’s pretty disgraceful all around.
But there are a couple of other things that I noticed in the letter from the State Department legal advisor to the DOJ Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
First, it’s the State Department dictating the move to the DOJ, so that is the administration effectively dictating to the DOJ, which is supposed to be making non-political decisions.
But second, if you look at the timeline, you can see something interesting.
The judge asked the government for their opinion on immunity at the beginning of July. That was right before Biden went to Saudi Arabist to beg for more oil production. The DOJ didn’t have to give an opinion to the Court, they could have just declined to do so. They had until August 1. The DOJ didn’t give a response then but asked for an extension. In the meantime, MBS was made Prime Minister on September 27, three days before the second due date for a DOJ response. Being Prime Minister — head of government — would strengthen the argument for immunity. But then, rather than answering by that second date, the DOJ got another extension to respond until Nov. 17. That’s when we finally got that one-paragraph legal opinion from the State Department.
Here’s a question for reporters to ask Jean-Pierre or Biden: Did you put off the response in which you were going to shield MBS — knowing that it would antagonize people on the left before the election — but now doing it, to help out with the oil situation? If it was the only response you could give, as you now claim which isn’t quite true, why did you need that extension? Couldn’t you just have answered back in September? Why didn’t you do that then? Is this one more thing that the Biden team tried to put off so as not to hurt the Democrats’ chances in the election? Did any of this have to do with the oil negotiations?
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