Before President Biden gave a speech on Tuesday announcing the ban of Russian oil imports, the cast of At This Hour on CNN warned that gas prices will go up and that Biden has no good options to fix that problem -- as if his own policies have no impact on the situation.
Host Kate Bolduan asked White House correspondent John Harwood about one potential solution the administration has considered: “John, as you were talking about, kind of, the political price here, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, if that's where the Biden administration goes to fill the gaps, how complicated is this going to get?”
Harwood declared:
Well, it’s very complicated because those are repugnant regimes as well. That's why there are heavy U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, Iran as well. The United States is also reaching out to Saudi Arabia, which of course, has [a] terrible record on human rights.
In what would soon become a theme for the segment, Harwood omitted any mention of Biden’s record, alleging, “there are only bad options in this situation.” If Biden wasn’t so eager to jump back into the Iran deal, the Saudis might be more willing to help, but CNN’s defense of Biden’s terrible energy policies was just getting started.
Bolduan then turned to economics commentator Catherine Rampell and wondered if Biden could do anything to address surging gas prices: “What can the Biden administration do to protect Americans from gas prices soaring even further with the understanding that forever we have known that there's not a lot any administration can do quickly?”
Rampell agreed that Biden is mostly a bystander whose ability to positively impact the solution is limited:
That's the issue here, as John pointed out, the options for the Biden administration are essentially lose, lose, lose. Either we look weak with regard to Putin or we make a deal with a different devil, Venezuela, Saudi, Iran, for example, or American consumers absorb a lot more pain.
She also condemned the idea of increasing domestic production:
And there's no free lunch here. I think you hear a lot of Republicans arguing that there's a free lunch. Oh. we can just ramp up U.S. supply, but that's a fantasy, at least in the very near term. There's a long lag between the time that a, an oil producer gets out a rig, for example, you know, leases a new rig and we get additional supply online. So no matter what, there's going to be pain in the near term....There are no good options here.
Why Rampell thinks this is a good argument that makes for good Twitter content is not clear. If there is a long lag between starting production and seeing results, then it makes sense to ramp up production now and it means it was malpractice not to earlier when Russia started amassing its troops at the border several months ago.
This segment was sponsored by Chase.
Here is a transcript of the March 8 show:
CNN At This Hour
3/8/2022
11:03 AM ET
KATE BOLDUAN: John, as you were talking about, kind of, the political price here, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, if that's where the Biden administration goes to fill the gaps, how complicated is this going to get?
JOHN HARWOOD: Well, it’s very complicated because those are repugnant regimes as well. That's why there are heavy U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, Iran as well. The United States is also reaching out to Saudi Arabia, which of course, has terrible record on human rights but there are only bad options in this situation. The world is dependent, remains dependent on oil and gas and there are a finite places to get it and once you start sanctioning a major producer like Russia, even if it's a relatively minor part of American imports, it has an impact on the market, that has an impact on consumers, that has an impact on political attitudes, but as I indicated earlier, they’re, they have less and less choice in the matter because of the political pressure.
One of the things you have to wonder is as this war goes on, does that erode the constraints on deployment of American military power and NATO military power? Hasn’t yet. That's a line that they—they-- have held so far, but you've got to wonder how much that pressure creates a desire for change.
BOLDUAN: And it will be important and—and-- interesting to hear what the president's message is, what his tone is because he's got obviously multiple audiences, a message to Vladimir Putin here, a message to Ukraine, a message to European allies, and a message to Americans, obviously, because as you said, this is going to impact every American. What can the Biden administration do to protect Americans from gas prices soaring even further with the understanding that forever we have known that there's not a lot any administration can do quickly.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: That's the issue here, as John pointed out, the options for the Biden administration are essentially lose, lose, lose. Either we look weak with regard to Putin or we make a deal with a different devil, Venezuela, Saudi, Iran, for example, or American consumers absorb a lot more pain. And there's no free lunch here. I think you hear a lot of Republicans arguing that there's a free lunch. Oh. we can just ramp up--
BOLDUAN: Drill more.
RAMPELL: --U.S. supply, but that's a fantasy, at least in the very near term. There's a long lag between the time that a, an oil producer gets out a rig, for example, you know, leases a new rig and we get additional supply online. So no matter what, there's going to be pain in the near term. Biden needs to essentially prepare Americans for that additional pain and say, look, this is the sacrifice we’re making, we're not your sending sons and daughters abroad to spill their blood, but there's an economic sacrifice that you’re gonna have to make because prices are going to go up. There are no good options here.
