Gov. Ron DeSantis waded into petroleum geopolitics Friday, offering rhetorical cover for Saudi Arabia's recent frustrations with President Joe Biden.
DeSantis said that the Biden administration "playing footsie" with Iran created the situation that led to OPEC production cuts during a campaign event.
"And people will say, 'Well, the Saudis are doing this for political reasons, to go at Biden.' And you know what, they probably are doing that. But here's the thing: because Biden's playing footsie with Iran, that's their arch enemy," DeSantis said.
"So I don't think the Saudis like Biden, they probably are doing that."
The Saudis aren't the only adversarial regime courted by the White House, DeSantis contended.
"I mean, just think about it, they're begging (Nicolás) Maduro, 'Please give us oil, Maduro.' They're begging OPEC and Saudi, 'Please don't cut production.'" DeSantis said.
Biden vowed "consequences" for Saudi Arabia earlier this month, in the wake of OPEC production cuts despite U.S. attempts to lobby against them. But DeSantis seems to believe America is not positioned to exact consequences due to a lack of domestic production combined with money supply expansion.
"You have this inflationary spiral and you're trying to crack down on American energy production. I mean, they should be wanting to produce more energy, because the energy has been driving a lot of the inflation. Yet they're not willing to do that, so they're inflating the money supply, they're overstimulating on fiscal, while cracking down on production, which makes no sense whatsoever," DeSantis said.
DeSantis' sharp words on this subject present a contrast to his immediate reaction to the decision of the OPEC cartel two weeks ago to cut production by 2 million barrels a day.
He noted "ominous signs" on the horizon, but did not mention, much less critique, a pivot to Venezuela when talking oil prices on Oct. 6 in the immediate wake of Biden's visit to storm-ravaged Southwest Florida.
Indeed, on that occasion he extolled low gas prices.
"I actually saw it at $2.99," DeSantis said as the crowd whooped. "I have not seen it under $3 in a long time. Certainly, I don't think, since Jan. 20 a year and a half ago."
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