As President Biden prepares to travel to Arizona to declare a new national monument around The Grand Canyon, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell used her Tuesday show to lament how people’s basic needs to heat their homes and not break their wallets over gas prices have hurt his ability to cut back on fossil fuels. Mitchell and Politico White House editor Sam Stein also insisted that those gas prices have nothing to do with those high gas prices as he’s just a bystander to world events.
Stein and Mitchell also agreed that Biden’s—like former President Barack Obama’s—record on environmental issues isn’t the greatest, with Stein critiquing them from the left, “And you hit the nail on the head, he's got a relatively mixed record when it comes to land preservation. It's reminiscent to a degree of what Barack Obama had where there was some drilling that angered environmentalists but there was conservation efforts too.”
After Stein finished by discussing Biden’s decision to do an interview with The Weather Channel, Mitchell mourned that Biden’s foreign and energy policies were forced to enter the real world:
And, just, Sam, one thought also is that the Ukraine War interfered with some of his plans to cut back on fossil fuels. Because they had to ramp up and help Europe with natural gas and then, of course, they were worrying about the gas prices which again are on the rise with the heat wave and some of the actions in OPEC, so there’s just been a whole lot of cross-currents as they try to improve their environmental--.
As Mitchell tells it, Biden had nothing to do with those high gas prices. She also does not explicitly mention the reason for the increased supply of natural gas to Europe, but the move came so that the Europeans could continue to have heat in the winter months as they seek to move away from Russian energy sources. If geopolitical realities and basic standard of living concerns force the U.S. and Europe to increase their reliance on fossil fuels, maybe that says something about the desire to move on from them.
However, MSNBC wasn’t interested in that question. Instead, Stein agreed as he also portrayed Biden’s situation as one that is no fault of his own:
I will say this, you know this very well, they are particularly obsessed inside the White House with the price of gas, they were in the lead up to the 2022 elections. Obviously, the war in Ukraine worsened the situation, but this is top of mind for the president and his team. At the same time, they do have to balance what is a huge core constituency in the party of environmentalists and people who are deeply, deeply concerned about excessive heat and climate change.
You can do something about lower gas prices or appeal to your base. You can help the Europeans disentangle themselves from Russian blackmail or appeal to your base. For MSNBC, those, apparently, are difficult choices.
This segment was sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript for the August 8 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
8/8/2023
12:25 PM ET
SAM STEIN: Yeah, he first of all, he has not gone out west that much as president.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Yeah, it’s a good point.
STEIN: There’s been a few trips, mostly for fundraising, but this is going to be one of those seminal campaign swings, early campaign swings, where he goes out to a critical battleground state out west. And you hit the nail on the head, he's got a relatively mixed record when it comes to land preservation. It's reminiscent to a degree of what Barack Obama had where there was some drilling that angered environmentalists but there was conservation efforts too.
What I found really interesting about this trip is actually the media that he’s going to be doing tomorrow. He's scheduled to do an interview with The Weather Channel, which is not your prototypical for a president, but it does follow a kind of interesting tradition of presidents, including Obama, using alternative media—in Obama’s case in was Bear Grylls doing an interview up in a glacier, in this case, the Weather Channel—using alternative media to really get a message out around climate change, around excessive heat, which, of course, we know has hit Arizona particularly hard.
So, this is a new step for the president, both geographically and from a media outreach perspective.
MITCHELL: And, just, Sam, one thought also is that the Ukraine War interfered with some of his plans to cut back on fossil fuels. Because they had to ramp up—
STEIN: Yeah.
MITCHELL: -- and help Europe with natural gas and then, of course, they were worrying about the gas prices which again are on the rise with the heat wave--
STEIN: Exactly.
MITCHELL: -- and some of the actions in OPEC, so there’s just been a whole lot of cross-currents as they try to improve their environmental--.
STEIN: I will—and I will-- exactly and I will say this, you know this very well, they are particularly obsessed inside the White House with the price of gas, they were—
MITCHELL: Yes.
STEIN: -- in the lead up to the 2022 elections. Obviously, the war in Ukraine worsened the situation, but this is top of mind for the president and his team. At the same time, they do have to balance what is a huge core constituency in the party of environmentalists and people who are deeply, deeply concerned about excessive heat and climate change.
