Late Tuesday morning, Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports, an action he says targets the “main artery of Russia’s economy.”
“That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports,” Biden said. “And the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine.”
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Biden had previously resisted calls to ban Russian oil because, thanks to Joe Biden, our domestic oil production has been hampered, and 10% of oil imports come from Russia. A disruption of those imports will inevitably cause gas prices to skyrocket.
Of course, this is why Biden is trying to create the narrative that Putin is to blame for gas prices being so high.
“Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military buildup on Ukrainian borders — just since then — the price of gas at pumps in America went up 75 cents. And with this action it’s going to go up further,” Biden said. “I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home.”
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BIDEN: "Putin's war is already hurting American families at the gas pump…I'm going to do everything I can to minimize Putin's price hike here at home." pic.twitter.com/wCm1TDkGtE
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 8, 2022
“Putin’s price hike?” Oh, that’s adorable. Does Joe Biden think that we’ve forgotten that, while gas prices have spiked since Russia invaded Ukraine, they’ve actually been going up steadily since after the 2020 election?
Spoiler alert: We haven’t.
Biden claims it's "Putin's price hike."
It's not. It's Biden's. pic.twitter.com/hJwbytEyMT
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) March 8, 2022
Biden not only knew that gas prices would spike if Russia invaded Ukraine, but he made no meaningful effort to thwart the invasion. In fact, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blames Biden for allowing Russia to invade. On Saturday, Zelenskyy told members of Congress that “If [the United States] had started sanctions months ago, there would not have been war.”
Nevertheless, on Tuesday morning, Biden not only continued to frame high gas prices as being connected only to the Russian invasion, but he also blamed oil and gas companies.
“To the oil and gas companies and to the finance firms that back them — we understand Putin’s war against the people of Ukraine is causing prices to rise. We get that. That’s self-evident,” he said. “But it’s no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation or American consumers.”
Do you see? High prices at the pump aren’t Biden’s fault! They’re Putin’s fault! They’re the fault of oil and gas companies! Let’s just forget that Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, or that he killed new oil and gas leasing on federal land and waters, or that he imposed new regulations on domestic energy production. Forget all that! We’re supposed to blame Putin and big oil, not Biden.
Does he really think the American people will fall for this?
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