The old maxim that the “the first casualty of war is truth” has been wretchedly demonstrated by anti-American right-wingers since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump has proved that he is both a liar and an idiot on this (or any) subject. And Fox News continues to politicize the slaughter of innocents for their own partisan purposes.

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Meanwhile, President Biden is fulfilling his role as an American leader who cherishes the principles of democracy and liberty worldwide. His support for Ukraine has been forthright and unwavering. Unfortunately, he is burdened with having to educate Republican cretins who embrace Vladimir Putin and distort reality to advance their political self-interests.

In an address to the American people on Tuesday morning, Biden announced that the U.S. would cease to purchase Russian oil. That’s a move that has had bipartisan support in Congress. But he still had to debunk the lies that the right has been telling about oil production in the U.S. Which he did succinctly and, unlike the right, factually (video below):

“It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. That’s simply not true. Even amid the pandemic, companies in the United States pumped more oil during my first year in office than they did during my predecessor’s first year. We’re approaching record levels of oil and gas production in the United States, and we’re on track to set a record of oil production next year.

“In the United States, 90 percent of onshore oil production takes place on land that isn’t owned by the federal government. And of the remaining 10 percent that occurs on federal land, the oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased. They have 9,000 permits to drill now. They could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year. They have 9,000 to drill onshore that are already approved. Let me be clear. They are not using them for production now. That’s their decision, These are the facts.”

These are facts that are already known to the GOP. They just don’t care about the truth because honesty hampers their political goals. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made these same points on Monday in a detailed, multi-part tweet. She also schooled Fox News hack Peter Doocy, who appeared utterly incapable of grasping the lesson:

White House @PressSec Jen Psaki:

"There are 9,000 unused approved drilling permits. So, I would suggest you ask the oil companies why they're not using those if there's a desire to drill more." pic.twitter.com/I86jhV2HbD

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 7, 2022

Fox News, of course, is committed to lying about this. Following Biden’s remarks Fox’s David Asman complained that Biden “was making the same misstatement that Jen Psaki did, saying that we have the highest oil production ever, [and that] we are not producing as much oil as we could.” Except that neither Biden nor Psaki said that. What they said is that is that oil production is at a very high level, comparable to the past, and that the only we reason we aren’t producing more is that the oil companies are sitting on unused leases. Perhaps because they want to limit supply in order to boost prices.

Not to be left out, Trump had his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill post an all-caps, ego drenched tweet saying “BREAKING NEWS: HIGHEST GAS PRICES IN HISTORY! DO YOU MISS ME YET?”

As usual, Trump is purposefully misleading. For the record, “The average cost of a gallon of regular fuel is now $4.173, according to AAA. That’s the highest ever recorded, not accounting for inflation, surpassing the $4.114 high-water mark set in the summer of 2008. (That would be about $5.37 in today’s dollars.)”

What’s more, the vast majority of the American people (83%) support Biden’s sanctions on Russia, including most Republicans (80%). And more than two-thirds (69%) would still support the sanctions if they result in higher energy prices. That also includes almost 6 in 10 Republicans.

[UPDATE: Trump released another tweet babbling that “most of Europe won’t go along with the United States in boycotting Russian oil and gas.” He goes on to complain about the “Fake News” and Europe taking advantage of us. But he’s only proving that he doesn’t understand the pressures on Europe, that is more dependent on foreign oil. Trump also doesn’t understand the leadership that Biden is demonstrating by being an example for the rest of the world, who may join the Russian oil boycott as a result. He is just whining and, as usual, has no solutions.]

In Biden’s remarks he also noted that “the United States produces more oil domestically than all the European countries combined.” And he admonished the oil companies to refrain from exploiting the current crisis to gouge consumers. Then he closed with this bit of insightful advice for the future:

“Loosening environmental regulations and pulling back clean energy investment will not lower energy prices for families. But transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy with tax credits to help American families winterize their homes and use less energy, that will help. And if we can, if we do what we can, it’ll mean that no one has to worry about the price of the gas pump in the future.

“That will mean tyrants like Putin won’t be able to use fossil fuels as weapons against other nations. And it will make America a world leader in manufacturing and exporting clean energy technology in the future to countries all around the world.”

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