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"Election Interference": Oil Price Hike Is Saudi Arabia's October Surprise Against Biden
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/11/mbs-saudi-oil-biden-october-surprise-election-interference/“Election Interference”: Oil Price Hike Is Saudi Arabia’s October Surprise Against Biden
“The Saudis Are Working To Get Trump Re-elected And For The Maga Republicans To Win The Midterms.”
Ken Klippenstein
October 11 2022, 1:07 p.m.
WHEN, JUST ONE month before midterm elections, Saudi Arabia announced it would be slashing oil production by 2 million barrels a day, White House officials called it a “hostile act” and said the administration was “re-evaluating” the Saudi relationship. It was the kind of bellicose language officialdom virtually never uses to describe the oil-rich monarchy, whose vast wealth has bought it enormous influence in Washington.
Congressional Democrats facing reelection amid soaring gas prices were similarly incensed. Usually, Capitol Hill will trot out bloodless language of “deep concern” in response to the kingdom’s myriad human rights abuses, but this time congressional Democrats struck back, vowing to block weapons sales and even taking the unprecedented step of introducing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The bill’s sponsors linked their efforts to the war in Ukraine, pointing out how keeping oil prices high results in a windfall of profit to bankroll Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion.
Yet experts pointed to the price hikes as more than a geopolitical move. They said it was also a foray by Saudi’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, into U.S. electoral politics: a move by the Saudi-dominated oil cartel OPEC against President Joe Biden and in favor of Donald Trump.
“The Saudis are working to get Trump re-elected and for the MAGA Republicans to win the midterms,” Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, told The Intercept. “Higher oil prices will undermine the Democrats.”
“The Saudis Are Working To Get Trump Re-elected And For The Maga Republicans To Win The Midterms.”
Ken Klippenstein
October 11 2022, 1:07 p.m.
WHEN, JUST ONE month before midterm elections, Saudi Arabia announced it would be slashing oil production by 2 million barrels a day, White House officials called it a “hostile act” and said the administration was “re-evaluating” the Saudi relationship. It was the kind of bellicose language officialdom virtually never uses to describe the oil-rich monarchy, whose vast wealth has bought it enormous influence in Washington.
Congressional Democrats facing reelection amid soaring gas prices were similarly incensed. Usually, Capitol Hill will trot out bloodless language of “deep concern” in response to the kingdom’s myriad human rights abuses, but this time congressional Democrats struck back, vowing to block weapons sales and even taking the unprecedented step of introducing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The bill’s sponsors linked their efforts to the war in Ukraine, pointing out how keeping oil prices high results in a windfall of profit to bankroll Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion.
Yet experts pointed to the price hikes as more than a geopolitical move. They said it was also a foray by Saudi’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, into U.S. electoral politics: a move by the Saudi-dominated oil cartel OPEC against President Joe Biden and in favor of Donald Trump.
“The Saudis are working to get Trump re-elected and for the MAGA Republicans to win the midterms,” Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, told The Intercept. “Higher oil prices will undermine the Democrats.”
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