We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy.
That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and
the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin's war machine.
>> President Joe Biden announced that the United States will be banning
imports of Russian oil.
This of course goes in addition to the sanctions that have been implemented
against Russia.
But considering the fact that the United States imports a small
percentage of oil from Russia, this is really meant to be a symbolic
gesture to persuade some of our European allies to follow suit.
We'll get to that in a moment but first a few details.
The US will be acting alone at least for now but in close consultation with
European allies who are more dependent on Russian energy supplies.
European nations have said they plan to reduce their reliance on Russia for
their energy needs, but
filling the void without crippling their economies will likely take some time.
Natural gas from Russia accounts for
one-third of Europe's consumption of fossil fuel.
In some European countries it's actually more than one third.
The United States does not import Russian natural gas.
In recent months the US stopped importing oil from Russia altogether,
which is why I say that this is mostly a symbolic gesture but really an effort
to signal to the rest of the world that the United States is taking a stand.
And as the US claims European countries and
as European countries are claiming, they're trying to find ways to wean
themselves off of their reliance on Russian energy.
Now before the invasion, Russian oil and
gas made up more than a third of government revenues.
Of course this is for Russia.
Global energy prices have surged after the invasion and
have continued to rise despite coordinated releases of strategic reserves,
making Russian exports even more lucrative.
And so the whole point here is to continue kneecapping the Russian economy
in an effort to persuade Putin to end this invasion into Ukraine.
The war is ongoing.
We'll see how this plays out.
But there was a lot of pressure for Biden to do this.
I think it was the right move for Biden and he has moved forward with it.
>> Yeah, I have a really interesting idea for political jiu jitsu here for Biden and
I'm sure he's gonna take it.
I'm gonna get to that in a second.
But first is this a good move?
Yes, definitely a good move a long time coming.
I understand why Europe can't get off of it because they would also be devastated.
I hope that they can get there at some point and they're trying to get there,
which by the way is terrible news for Russia in the long term.
So they're not just doing damage to themselves in the short term
with their market's tanking etcetera, once people get off of Russian oil and
gas, they're probably not gonna go back on.
I mean this is massive,
long term damage to Russian interests brought to you by Vladimir Putin.
So if you care about Russia, this guy's destroying it.
So he's destroying it and the world community being cut off from all banking,
including Switzerland, etc.
And now their oil beginning to get cut off.
And as you saw there, a huge part of their revenue without that,
they're in a world of trouble.
Now in terms of this particular thing where America is banning their oil,
well, it doesn't have too big an impact on Russia or
America, but it's important, it's symbolic.
And by the way, we hadn't done it until now.
So it's not like it was cost-free or in pain-free for America,
Biden was worried about gas prices.
So now that's where we bring in my idea of doing political jiu jitsu, okay?
So how do you do it right now, Marco Rubio and
other republicans are saying how dare Biden trying to make
a deal with Venezuela to offset the oil we're losing from Russia.
It's outrageous and unacceptable.
Of course, some loser corporate democrats are joining along in that.
But here's what Biden can do.
Look, man, I was gonna do a deal with Venezuela to get us lower gas prices, but
republicans say no, they want higher gas prices.
You think that the American people are gonna be, no, I have principled opposition
of Venezuela and I agree we should have higher gas prices.
Look instantly, you've already changed the debate from is Biden
causing higher gas prices to our republicans, causing higher gas prices?
So now that's actually really easy to do, in the Biden administration,
as you all know, of course, will not do any of that.
>> Well, I think the Biden administration with a few exceptions lately,
is pretty terrible at messaging.
I think Jen Psaki has actually been doing a good job in slapping down Peter Doocy
and his ridiculous framing when it comes to the increase in gas prices.
We'll get to that a little later in the show.
But to your point Cenk regarding Marco Rubio and even some democrats like
Bob Menendez, who are against striking a deal with Venezuela.
Look, I don't know what's motivating Menendez, but in terms of Marco Rubio,
he's got a constituency in Florida to suck up to and
that's primarily, right wing Cubans and right wing Venezuelans.
And so I understand why he's attacking it from that perspective.
With Biden though I just look, I think that most Americans
are just in the dark about how all of this works.
I don't think most Americans are aware that there is the OPEC plus cartel and
that they intentionally withhold oil and
energy production in an effort to artificially inflate the prices of energy.
And look, it's not because Americans are stupid.
It's because we have corporate media that doesn't actually give them the accurate
information regarding what's happening and how oil prices or gas prices work.
The other issue is most people, including,
well meaning progressives don't know that we export our natural resources, right?
And it's because again, corporations get to control those natural resources and
they sell it to the highest bidder.
And so when we talk about energy dependence, it's such a ridiculous thing
to say because we drill and we frack and we again produce more oil and
natural gas than any other country in the world were literally number one.
The idea that we're gonna just go along with this disaster capitalism or
shock doctrine type garbage where oil companies are trying
to exploit this crisis to get more favorable treatment and
more deregulation from government is just infuriating.
>> Look, the news actors on television are embarrassing.
I don't think a single one of them knows this fact.
They just regurgitate the oil lobbies talking points about waiting to be energy
independent without even thinking for a second.
What does it mean to be energy independent?
Who is energy independent and how?
If you have 100 bucks and that makes you independent, okay,
then you're independent.
But in this case we don't have the oil, The United States of America does not have
the oil, the private oil companies have the oil.
So, they're selling it all across the world.
So what are you saying?
I mean they're literally crying on MSNBC today we have to drill more.
Why are we not energy Independent?
I'm not talking about Fox News or CNN on MSNBC they're crying about,
how they need more oil.
But who gets the oil?
We don't get the oil.
The American people don't get the oil.
The oil companies get it and they sell it to the highest bidder.
Do you not know anything?
These are the best news people in America.
They never once talked about who actually gets the oil and where does it go?
So if you guys want energy independence, you could do it today.
You wouldn't like it because then the president would say, okay,
if you're taking the oil or the gas from America, it's America's natural resources,
you're not allowed to sell it abroad.
Boom, there, we're energy independent.
I solved it.
You guys want that?
No, then MSNBC and CNN etcetera anchors will be crying about socialism.
How could they do this, the beloved profits of the oil companies.
They have been endangered.
Bernie had a tweet.
I lost track of it a little while earlier.
But the profits that the top six oil companies are made in the last five years
is gargantuan in the tens of billions of dollars.
You're worried about gas prices?
Great, no problem.
Let's tell the oil companies they're not allowed to charge extra.
They'll still make billions in profits,
but they're not allowed to price gouge during this crisis.
You wanna do that?
No, all of a sudden, no.
The prophets of our beloved oil companies.
That's what I thought.
So why don't you actually tell people the truth?
Okay, it's one thing for
the politicians to lie because they're getting bribed by oil companies.
It's obvious that oil companies are gonna lie about it.
But why are the people that are supposedly in media and the press and
journalists lying about this?
>> I'll tell you why.
Just today, one of our viewers sent me the NPR
broadcast, which opens with an ad from BP.
So if your advertisers, if your funders, if a source of revenue for
your programming comes from oil companies, fossil fuel companies,
there's certain information that you might withhold from the audience.
And so that's what I'm saying when I indicate that most Americans don't know
about how OPEC intentionally manipulates prices.
Most Americans don't know about the fact that a lot of these natural resources
get exported.
Most Americans don't know that Joe Biden unilaterally without any involvement from
Congress can do an executive order banning these oil companies from exporting these
natural resources to other countries at this time of emergency.
But he's unwilling to do it so far from what we've seen.
>> Isn't it amazing that not a single show on cable news is talking about
what is obviously true.
You all know that oil companies are private.
They're not public.
You all know that the oil and the gas comes from America but
goes to the oil companies.
You all know this, but they never put it together.
They just say, well energy independence and there's nothing we could do and
they never tell you about the profits of the oil companies.
They never tell you that there are solutions, but
the politicians would not be willing to do it.
Those news anchors would not be in favor of it.
They never tell you any of that.
Not one show is allowed to say it on television.
Is that amazing?
No, we don't have real media in this country.
Everything is smoke and mirrors.
Everything is marketing for corporate rule