Sen. Hagerty: Saudi Arabia Has Taken Oil From Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve at Yesterday’s Prices, Hiked the Price, and Will Sell It Back to Us

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said Thursday that he’s not surprised at OPEC’s decision to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day, but he’s surprised at the White House’s reaction.
 
“I’m not surprised at the decision, but what I am surprised at is the reaction of the White House. They say that they’re disappointed, that this is short-sighted. They should look in the mirror. The disappointed and short-sighted energy policies originated right here in Washington, and their response to this I’m afraid is going to be to sell down more of the SPR,” he told Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo.”

“What is supposed to be the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, what they’re calling it now I think is the Strategic Political Reserve, because their eyes are on the November elections. They’re trying to get gas prices down, and that’s what this is all about. They’re out pleading with Iran, with Venezuela,” the congressman said.

“They’d rather deal with international killers than work with American drillers right here at home. The answer is so obvious. It’s right here. Joe Biden needs to take his throat off the oil and gas industry’s throat,” he said.

Hagerty said that Biden has “actually sold more oil than we could process here.”

“Who’s taken it? China’s taken it. Guess what? Saudi Arabia has taken oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve under the Biden administration. They’re taking that oil at yesterday’s prices, and now they’re hiking the price of oil, and they’re going to turn around and sell it back to us. I think the Biden administration has yet again been played,” the congressman said.

He said that the Biden administration wants to see $15 a gallon gas in the United States to force Americans “into some sort of green new energy fantasy.”

On the spike in crime in major U.S. cities, Hagerty said that it goes back to what happened during the presidential campaign.

I think you go back to what the Biden administration ran on when they were running for office back in 2020. Defund the police has manifested itself in this behavior. The other thing to look at is what happened at our southern border. The day that Joe Biden came in, he dropped all enforcement at the border. 

What these criminal elements are able to see is anybody can walk into the United States of America. Nobody cares. There are no consequences for that crime. Why should there be any consequence for crimes in our city? It’s happening all across America, particularly in our cities. It’s even happening in Tennessee. 

That’s prompted Marsha Blackburn and I – my senior senator from Tennessee to put forward legislation to deal with this right now. We need to turn around and get our law and order reinstated here in our cities in America. 

We need to properly fund the police and prosecutors and need to stop this whole notion of no consequence bail, no cash bail, and get back to the notion that America is going to fulfill its basic promise to the public. That’s to keep us safe. That’s what our act will do and we need to get back focused on this. 

We also sent a letter to Joe Biden encouraging to do the same thing – fund police right now, not IRS agents to come snoop on Americans. Let’s bring law and order back to our cities and to our streets. 

The congressman said that he’s optimistic that there will be a change in the House and Senate in November. 

We’ve got to turn this ship around. We’ve got to re-prioritize America, again, deliver on our basic promises. If you look at what’s happening in law and order, the act that Marsha Blackburn and I put forward will do things like compress the time it takes to process rape kits. 

There was a terrible rape and murder that happened in Memphis, that the perpetrator had actually been picked up on a rape the year before. The rape kit had not been processed. Had it been processed in time, that murderer would have been off the streets. We’ve got to come back and properly fund and properly restore law and order here in America. 

Hagerty said that he hopes to be in position to put his bill with Blackburn to a vote “if we win control of the United States Senate, and we’re poised to do it.”

Again, we’re not waiting. We sent a letter to President Biden outlining what he should do, but again, we had every Democrat in the United States Senate vote against deporting those illegal aliens that are here and have committed felonies. 

So the priorities of the Democrat Party are so detached from the American public, it’s crazy, and as the American public realize this situation, they’re going to continue more and more to side with the Republicans on this. That’s why I think we’re going to see a landslide in November.

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