Rep. James Comer (R-TN), the Investigative Committee’s senior Republican, revealed in a letter Sunday that the committee is looking into a New York Times claim of a “secret arrangement to enhance oil output” between the Biden government and the Saudis to cut gas prices right before the midterms.
According to Breitbart News, President Biden was accused in Oct. of “placing his personal political interests before the national interest” by requesting that Saudi Arabia postpone cuts to oil output until after the midterm elections. Former President Trump got impeached for supposedly doing the same thing as President Joe Biden.
Comer’s letter mentions a May 2022 Times article in which Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, two top senior officials from the State Dept. and National Security Council, attempted to negotiate a “clandestine, two-part plan” with Saudi Arabia to lower gas prices in the spring of 2022.
In May, the national average cost of gasoline was more than $4.50 a gallon, creating a political liability.
On June 2, OPEC+ supposedly issued new oil output deadlines in “compliance” with the Biden Govt.’s “secret arrangement” with Saudi Arabia. On the same day, Biden announced that he would fly to Saudi Arabia to meet with Saudi leaders in Oct., one month prior to the midterm elections.
Despite the planned meeting and “secret agreement” to increase oil production, Comer claims that “OPEC+ failed to satisfy the production parameters stated in the secret agreement by committing to increase output.” Because of the failure to fulfill the production targets, the Biden Admin. increased its OPEC+ lobbying efforts ahead of the US-Saudi Arabia conference in October.
Nonetheless, OPEC+ announced a decrease in oil output in November 2022, which the admin. saw as a “betrayal” in the run-up to the midterm elections.
According to Comer, the administration’s actions must be scrutinized to determine whether it has participated in “backdoor market manipulations involving adversarial countries while compromising our national security in order to secure more advantageous electoral conditions for Dems.”
“This Committee is responsible for investigating any backdoor deals made by Pres. Biden or his emissaries. For political reasons, the President prefers foreign sources above home sources. The American people have a right to know if his government is engaging in backdoor markets manipulations with enemy nations while compromising our national security in order to secure more advantageous electoral conditions for Democrats.”
Comer urged that the administration turn over relevant incident documents and that Hochstein sit for a transcribed interview.
