On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reacted to President Joe Biden blaming Vladimir Putin for inflation and high gas prices and Democrats in Congress blaming oil companies by stating that the U.S. needs to lead and “can’t be pointing fingers and accusing.” And that “Rather than beating them up and taking a club to them,” energy producers need support.

Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 2:40] “Senator, the Biden administration, when it comes to gas prices, you look at the pump across America, the national gas prices average is really, really high. … Inflation is up, a 40-year high. The Biden administration has been blaming Vladimir Putin, saying it’s a Putin price hike. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi have been saying oil companies are to blame. Is that an effective political strategy for your party?”

Manchin responded, “Let me tell you right now, we have to be united. We’re called the United States, and the world’s looking for leadership. We can’t be pointing fingers and accusing. The bottom line is, we can do more here. If you — I am not absolutely signed on [in] any way, shape, or form for us to start buying basically or taking sanctions off of Venezuela or Iran. I think it would be a horrible mistake for us to do that. Next of all, if you’re worried about the global climate, anything and everything the United States does to replace and help our European allies, NATO allies, we do it better and cleaner than anybody else. And I can tell you, much, much better than Russia does it, much better than what Venezuela, or what Iran does it. So, why wouldn’t we use ours? Why don’t we ramp up and use the energy that we have? And we have the ability. We have the producers that can do it. They just need some support, that’s all. Rather than beating them up and taking a club to them, let’s basically encourage, basically do more, be able to produce more, quicker, and let’s make the United States of America truly energy independent. And then let’s work with our Canadian allies and our friends right across the border. Let’s work with Mexico. Let’s make this a North American energy hub. This should be basically the greatest energy market in the world.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett