Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Thursday that given recent events, Republicans in Congress have little faith in President Joe Biden's ability to negotiate deals on the world stage.
On Thursday, China and longtime U.S. ally Saudi Arabia reached a strategic partnership during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Riyadh. That occurred a week after the Biden administration granted Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immunity over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And it's also on the heels of a much-criticized prisoner swap with Russia that brought women's pro basketball star Brittney Griner back to the U.S. in exchange for a convicted arms trafficker and terrorist.
"You think we can't fall any further [on the world stage] than we did after the debacle in Afghanistan from when we withdrew our troops and left all of our military equipment behind," Comer said on "Spicer & Co." "But then you see what happened today with the prisoner swap in Russia and now how Saudi Arabia and China are essentially mocking President Biden."
Comer, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, will be the chair when the 118th Congress convenes in January. He has promised to look into a failed secret deal in which Biden tried to get Saudi Arabia to lower oil prices before the midterm elections, among other investigations involving the president.
"We want to know exactly what kind of deal Joe Biden was trying to make with Saudi Arabia," Comer said. "What we know is he was asking Saudi Arabia to increase oil production prior to the election. Therefore, that would obviously lower the price of gasoline and help him in the election. We want to know what was the deal after the election? Were they going to be able to cut production and, in turn, Americans were going to have to pay far more for oil than they normally would?
"The Democrats would call this a quid pro quo in the previous administration, so we're very concerned about this."
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