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Rep. Hern to Newsmax: Biden, Pelosi Prefer Dealing With Dictators on Oil

Sandy Fitzgerald, NEWSMAX

Washington, DC, March 10, 2022
President Joe Biden "would rather negotiate with dictators" than focus on getting oil from states like Oklahoma, Texas, and North Dakota; and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been "complicit" in making that happen, Rep. Kevin Hern said on Newsmax Thursday. 

"He's been sitting here begging Venezuela and these dictators to help out, [but] he's been doing this actually since day one," the Oklahoma Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report," adding that the president has been pushing OPEC to release more oil to take pressure off of growing prices.

Pelosi's help even reaches to Biden's executive order to stop the import of Russian oil, because his announcement came just before the vote on the bipartisan bill, which started coming through the House Ways and Means Committee Monday, said Hern.

"The president couldn't let Democrats and Republicans have a bipartisan solution, so he hijacked that, along with Nancy Pelosi, which is one of the reasons it took some all-day negotiations to be able to let the president takes some credit for this," said Hern. "The president has no clue."

The administration has been blaming the growing problem on Russia and on oil companies not using permits they already have in the United States to produce oil, but Hern said the Democrats have been passing blame for decades, all the way back to former President Jimmy Carter. 

"If we remember, Jimmy Carter blamed it on the Americans for using too much energy, and he told you to turn your thermostats down and go buy a coat," said Hern. "This president now is saying, If you don't like the high energy costs, go spend $55,000 on an electric vehicle … they're hell-bent on destroying our fossil fuel industry and they have been since the day they got in there."

It has also been "absolutely insane to spend some $72 million in payments" to Russia for oil, said Hern. 

The administration is also going after financial institutions that fund the nation's drillers, and the insurance companies that insure their rigs, said Hern. 

"While he talks about 9,000 federal leases out there, there's no industry going to stand up a new rig that costs $10 million to $20 million to put in the ground, only to see this administration absolutely like to destroy them," said Hern.