Near-record gas prices are endangering Democrats’ prospects in the November midterm election
Bloomberg: Biden Likely to Visit Saudi Arabia as US Gasoline Prices Spiral, Sources Say
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden is likely to visit Saudi Arabia later this month as part of an international trip for NATO and Group of Seven meetings, according to people familiar with the matter, with record high US gas prices weighing on his party’s political prospects.
Traveling to Saudi Arabia would mean Biden would almost inevitably meet its effective ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, whom the US president blames for the 2018 murder of a US-based columnist in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
The people familiar with the matter said only that a Saudi Arabia trip was likely, without confirming a meeting with the crown prince. They asked not to be identified because Biden’s travel plans haven’t been finalized.
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WNU Editor: With OPEC increasing their output by only a few hundred thousands barrels of oil per day (link here). Add this with China now opening up from its Covid lock-downs, the US draw-down on its strategic oil reserve ending later this summer, and the EU looking for non-Russian oil to meet its needs. You can take this to the bank. Oil prices are going to skyrocket.
President Biden has no choice but to go to Saudi Arabia and try to make a deal with the Kingdom to maximize its oil output, but to also prioritize the West as its customer.
I think this trip and meeting will end in failure.
Relations between President Biden and Crown Prince Salman are non-existent, and one can even say openly hostile on a personal level. Add in issues like the US push for an Iranian nuclear deal, White House criticisms of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, US pressure for justice over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and even calling Saudi Arabia a pariah state .... there is no common ground between the two countries right now.
There is also the issue of business and money. Saudi Arabia is enjoying record earnings from its oil with the status quo. Why should they accommodate President Biden's needs?
But President Biden does not have a choice but to make arrangements and go. If this energy crisis is not resolved before the US mid-term elections in November, the economic shock-waves that high gas prices are causing will wipe-out the Democrats electorally, and President Biden's agenda for the next two years will be DOA replaced by investigations on his son's business dealings, and how much did he personally benefited from it.
Update: It figures. As soon as I made this post the White House press is saying (through anonymous sources) that President Biden will be meeting Crown Prince Salman later this month .... Biden and Saudi crown prince planning to meet later this month (CNN).