Joe Biden Stalls ‘Consequences’ for Saudi Arabia Until After Midterms

President Joe Biden revealed Wednesday he would wait until after the midterms to change America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, punting on any action until Congress returns to Washington, DC.

“We’re going to react to Saudi Arabia, and they’re doing consultation when they come back,” he said, referring to Congress. “And we will take action.”

Congress is not expected to return to Washington, DC, until mid-November, after the midterm elections.

Biden’s remarks indicate he is not interested in a showdown with Saudi Arabia over oil prices before the midterm elections.

Despite personally meeting with the Saudis in July and fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on camera, the Saudis reportedly chose to ignore Biden’s request to help keep gas prices low by increasing their production of oil.

Instead, OPEC+ ultimately chose to cut oil production by two million barrels a day, which disappointed the Biden administration.

“When the House and Senate gets back, they’re going to have to — there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” Biden said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday night.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden would approach the relationship between the United States and the Saudis in a “methodical, strategic, effective way” but would not act until Congress returned.

“Some of these steps require a more full-throated engagement with the Congress and to be able to sit down with members of both parties in person to go through that,” he told reporters during a conference call on the administration’s national security priorities.

In his interview with CNN, Biden refused to outline what kind of “consequences” he was considering in response to the Saudis.

“I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be, there will be consequences,” he said.

Senate Democrats have already expressed their willingness to punish the Saudis for cutting oil production as the war in Ukraine has exacerbated the rising cost of oil and gas.

“It’s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without their alliance,” Sen. Dick Durbin wrote on social media.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the chairman of the foreign relations committee, said, “The United States must immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including any arms sales and security cooperation beyond what is absolutely necessary to defend U.S. personnel and interests,” in a statement on Monday.