'Morning Joe' says OPEC 'spit in Biden's face' on oil and it's going to hurt Democrats in midterms
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.
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THESE polls will tell you exactly how Americans feel about Joe Biden
The Biden backlash is beginning.
In a recent CNN poll, Biden job ratings have tanked and concerns about his age have risen as he gears up for 2024.
A majority of Americans also believe that when Joe Biden was vice president, he was involved with his son’s business dealings.
“Now, you might say, well, of course he was, and you’d be right,” Stu Burguiere says. “But thinking about the American people, the fact that they’re aware of this is positive, this is a good thing.”
According to the CNN poll, Joe Biden’s approval rating stands at just 39%; 58% believe that his policies have made economic conditions in the U.S. worse, which is up eight points since last fall. And 70% of Americans say things in the country are going badly; 51% say that the government should be doing more to solve the nation’s problems.
Stu doesn’t agree with the last stat, saying it’s “not the American spirit in action.”
“We should not be begging for the government to step in and solve all of our problems; they usually make things worse. All the things that we complain about today are, at some level, problems that government has created or just made worse. So let’s not cheer that on, please,” he adds.
Perceptions of Biden himself have also turned drastically negative: 58% of Americans have an unfavorable impression of him, 45% believe that he cares about people like them, and only 33% describe him as someone they’d be proud of having as president.
Only 28% of Americans say that Biden inspires confidence, which Stu calls a “catastrophic number,” and only 26% believe that he has the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president. And 73% of Americans say they’re concerned that Biden’s age may negatively affect his current level of physical and mental competence.
“His level of physical and mental competence is already incredibly low; he can’t do anything. And people are concerned it’s gonna get worse,” Stu says.
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