Has President Joe Biden forgotten which country his the President of? This week, the President announced that he is waving U.S. sanctions against the company building Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipeline that connects Russia with Eastern Europe.
A week after Russian hackers held America’s east coast oil supply hostage, Biden granted approval of the Russian pipeline.
After taking office, Biden shut down America’s Keystone XL pipeline that would have brought gas from Canada into the heart of America. The crude oil pipeline shutdown became a problem for Biden last week after Russian hackers shut down the east coast oil supply chain causing mass fuel shortages from Maryland to Georgia.
When pressed on why he shut down America’s pipeline and is giving his seal of approval on the Russian line, Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that’s not exactly how it happened.
“We’re hardly letting any country or other countries build Nord Stream II. When the president took office, 95% of this pipeline was built. We’ve continued to convey that we believe it’s a bad idea, a bad plan, and we have also put in place and taken actions over the last several days to make that clear,” Psaki said. “In large part, because our view is that it’s a Russian geopolitical project that threatens European energy security and that of Ukraine and Eastern Flank NATO allies and partners. Hence there’s a geopolitical concern about this pipeline and we’ve taken steps over the last several days to make that clear.”
When asked why the president gave in, instead of standing firm, Psaki said, “In what way were we going to be able to stop a project in another country that’s been built 95 percent?”
Perhaps by not lifting the sanctions against the companies building the pipeline, a reporter suggested.
“Make it more difficult with the sanctions on some of these officials involved,” the reporter told Psaki.
“Well, we have imposed sanctions on four Russian entities, four Russian vessels that engaged in sanctionable activities. We’ve also imposed sanctions on nine vessels belonging to the Russian government. This is the largest number of entities listed under this act to date. So we have certainly taken significant steps and we’ve also made clear, in public and private channels, our opposition to this plan,” Psaki said.