The “Morning Joe” crew
characterized a decision by OPEC as spitting in the face of President Joe Biden and said it would be damaging to the Democrats in the midterm elections.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced Wednesday that it would be drastically decreasing the output of oil despite Biden’s campaign to call on them to increase production in order to lower gas prices.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and his guest Steve Rattner discussed how the decision might affect the upcoming election.
“You look at the timing of this, one month before an election. You look at the fact that Joe Biden caught a lot of grief for going over and visiting the Saudi leader, a guy, of course, accused of murdering a Washington Post columnist, a Virginia resident, and this is what he gets a month before the election,” said Scarborough.
“This is what he gets when Vladimir Putin is on his back heels. What’s your thought about Biden’s overtures in Saudi Arabia, and how basically, Biden’s, he just spit in Biden’s face?” he asked.
“In general, in terms of how they try to manage oil, they do it based on their interests and trying to maximize the long-term value of oil and make sure current prices aren’t too low,” Rattner explained.
“They had absolutely no interest in accommodating anything Biden was trying to do,” he added. “They did what they thought they needed to do for themselves and for the other members of OPEC.”
When asked what Democrats could do before the election to ease gas prices, Rattner was not optimistic.
“So the unfortunate news for the White House is there really isn’t much else they can do between now and the election,” he answered, adding that it is “not great” for Democrats.
Biden responded to the snub from OPEC by announcing another release from the country’s Strategic National Reserves of oil in hopes of easing price pressure.