'The heck with that': Dick Durbin says Saudi Arabia 'should be out of business' over oil production cuts

United States Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) on Tuesday condemned the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's joint decision with Russia and other nations within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to slash oil production by two million barrels per day ahead of the November midterm elections. Cutting output is very likely to jack up the cost of fuel for American consumers.

The move has been widely panned as an attempt to sway voters away from Democrats toward Republicans and their alliance with former President Donald Trump – with whom the Saudis have an established personal financial relationship – as he gears up for potentially another White House run in 2024.

“The Saudis are working to get Trump re-elected and for the MAGA Republicans to win the midterms,” Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, told The Intercept. “Higher oil prices will undermine the Democrats.”

READ MORE: Joe Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia puts its human rights violations in the spotlight

President Joe Biden is also reportedly "reevaluating" the outcome of his recent controversial trip to the repressive kingdom to secure arms deals. American weapons are being used by the Saudis in its war on Yemen, one of the most horrific examples of genocide currently underway on planet Earth.

Given the domestic economic consequences that spikes at the pump will have, it should come as no surprise that frustration is growing among the most Biden-friendly lawmakers inside the Democratic caucus.

"I'm not going to manufacture something here. I can just tell you that the sentiment in the Senate is strong in terms of what the Saudi Arabians have done," said Durbin, the Senate's second-most powerful Democrat. "This notion that they're gonna raise our gasoline prices and we're supposed to look the other way and call them 'good old boys,' the heck with that. I mean, this is a terrible regime. It is a kingdom in the 21st century that should be out of business."

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