House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told CNBC on Wednesday that obtaining oil from Iran and Venezuela would benefit those countries' dictators.
"Why would you take the billions of dollars you provide to [Russian President Vladimir Putin] and just give it to another dictator that funds terrorism around the world with Iran and Venezuela?" McCarthy said on CNBC’s "Squawk Box."
"[President Joe Biden] said at the State of the Union, 'Buy American.' I believe he probably thought that, but not American energy."
McCarthy spoke on a day he wrote Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., to urge him to take immediate steps to undo his anti-oil and natural gas policies in order to increase production of California energy resources to help stabilize prices at the pump and reduce California’s importation of Russian crude oil.
Biden on Tuesday announced that the U.S. was "targeting the main artery of Russia's economy" by banning imports of Russian oil, the latest sanction intended to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and Venezuelan officials discussed the possibility of easing oil sanctions on Venezuela but made scant progress toward a deal in their first high-level bilateral talks in years, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Iran has been increasing oil production in the last six months due to rising exports to China, CNBC said.
Rather than seek agreements with Venezuela and Iran to fill the void created by the ban on Russian oil, McCarthy called for the U.S. to produce more oil onshore.
"We could be energy independent, but we could be energy dominant, where we not only supply all the energy for America, but we could supply it for the world," McCarthy told CNBC. "That would make America stronger and the world safer."
McCarthy also said the Biden administration needs to step up support of Ukraine.
Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington.
The Pentagon appeared to dismiss Poland's proposal on Tuesday to put its MiG-29 fighter jets at the disposal of the U.S. at a base in Germany in response to Ukraine's call for fighter jets, saying it was not "tenable."
"You don't say no to the MiGs," McCarthy told CNBC. "If you can't have a no-fly zone, why don't you allow the Ukrainians to develop their own no-fly zone where they can actually have a cease-fire instead of Russia bombing and killing innocent people?"
"[Biden] should sell weapons not just to Poland but to Taiwan, too. He should speed it up."
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