MSNBC has an explanation for why gas prices are on the rise again and it’s not President Biden’s terrible foreign and energy policy. Ali Velshi guest hosted The Last Word on Thursday and together with journalism and political science professor Peter Beinart, he blamed Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut production as part of a pro-GOP, anti-Democratic Party conspiracy.
Velshi argued that the Saudis are getting closer to the Russians as part of an anti-democracy partnership, “OPEC+, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have not condemned Putin's war. Russia has never condemned Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. These are just facts. I'm going to close with one more fact: gas prices move the needle in American elections, and democracy’s on the ballot in 33 days in America. 33 days. If democracy loses in America, what chance does it have in Ukraine or in the Middle East? Who wants democracy to win? Who wants it to lose?”
It's not an significant point that the Moscow has voted at the U.N. to advance Iranian interests in that conflict, but even worse than Velshi’s foreign policy analysis is his domestic politics analysis. Democracy is not on the ballot in November and equating electing Democrats with Ukraine’s fight for its very survival is grotesque.
After introducing Beinart and the New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof, Velshi asked Beinart what he thought considering, “I will say as an economic journalist, the price of oil was not in a place that demanded a … 2 million barrels a day cut.”
Beinart replied that, “There may have been more than one motivation. It might have been that they were genuinely afraid that a recession would push the price of oil down. But as you laid out, it’s certainly the case that the Saudis would rather have the Trump-era Republican Party, and indeed the Trump family in power then the Biden Administration and Democrats.”
Those are completely outrageous comments. Naturally, the Saudis would prefer someone who did not make it his life’s mission to make them a “pariah” or make deals with their sworn enemies in Iran in order to appease his left-wing base and Beltway journalists, but we repeat ourselves.
However, discussions on the complicated nature of Middle Eastern geopolitics and petro-states was not what Beinart wanted to talk about. Echoing Chris Cuomo he declared:
Why is that? Because the Trump Administration is easier to buy. The Trump Administration -- and the Saudis have already started to do that. They have made huge investments in Trump's own wallet, in Jared Kushner's wallet. They’ve also invested big money in Steve Mnuchin's investment fund, the former Treasury secretary. And they have clear evidence from Trump's first term that virtually nothing that they could do would lead him to decide that the United States shouldn’t put pressure on Saudi Arabia. So, why would they not essentially want Republicans to do better in these midterm elections?
If only there was an easy way for Biden to compensate for that loss of production that doesn’t involve running to Venezuela.
This segment was sponsored by Subaru.
Here is a transcript for the October 6 show:
MSNBC The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
10/6/2022
10:07 AM ET
ALI VELSHI: OPEC+, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have not condemned Putin's war. Russia has never condemned Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. These are just facts. I'm going to close with one more fact: gas prices move the needle in American elections, and democracy’s on the ballot in 33 days in America. 33 days. If democracy loses in America, what chance does it have in Ukraine or in the Middle East? Who wants democracy to win? Who wants it to lose? Joining me now, Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. He's an MSNBC political analyst. And Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and author soon to resume his column at the New York Times.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us this evening. Peter, let me just start with you. We don't know why Mohammed bin Salman, or Vladimir Putin, or any of these guys got involved in it. I will say as an economic journalist, the price of oil was not in a place that demanded a 2 billion—a 2 million barrels a day cut.
It was in the 80s. So we can only take the facts that we’ve got and try to make sense of them. How do you calculate these—these-- odds?
PETER BEINART: There may have been more than one motivation. It might have been that they were genuinely afraid that a recession would push the price of oil down. But as you laid out, it’s certainly the case that the Saudis would rather have the Trump-era Republican Party, and indeed the Trump family in power then the Biden Administration and Democrats.
Why is that? Because the Trump Administration is easier to buy. The Trump Administration -- and the Saudis have already started to do that. They have made huge investments in Trump's own wallet, in Jared Kushner's wallet. They’ve also invested big money in Steve Mnuchin's investment fund, the former Treasury secretary. And they have clear evidence from Trump's first term that virtually nothing that they could do would lead him to decide that the United States shouldn’t put pressure on Saudi Arabia. So, why would they not essentially want Republicans to do better in these midterm elections?
