Menendez: We Don’t Need Venezuela’s Oil, Biden Said Maduro Was a Security Threat Five Days Ago

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) reacted to the Biden administration reportedly looking to increase oil imports from Venezuela by stating that there is no need to go to the Maduro regime in Venezuela that President Biden declared a national security threat five days ago for more oil when there are other nations the U.S. can get oil from and domestic production that is already licensed.

Menendez doubled down on his statement referring to Maduro as a “cancer” and arguing that “we should not breathe new life into his reign of torture and murder.”

He continued, “Look, I understand the economic consequences that the president is trying to avoid for the American people. I share that concern. But there [are] places like Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, as well as domestic production that has already been licensed, that should be able to [offset] the consequences of the loss of Russian oil. You don’t have to go to a dictator that, ultimately, has created enormous consequences for his people, that kills people, that imprisons them, and for which President Biden extended the decree that declared Maduro and his regime a national security threat.”

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