Karine Jean-Pierre Says Biden Has ‘No Strategic Interest’ in Sanctioning Russian Gas

EXCERPT:

JEAN-PIERRE: "So, look, we don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy.  So you’ve heard Jen talk about that — the effect of what would happen with the global supply here. So that would raise prices at the gas pump for Americans and pad Putin’s profits, right? So that’s something that we’re very aware of. We’ve seen some American companies decide to cut ties with Russia, and we welcome those announcements. But, you know, we and our allies and partners have a strong collective interest to degrade Russia's status as a leading energy supplier over time. That’s why we’ve been talking about, you know, diversification, you know, and that’s why we shut down Nord Stream 2. That’s why we’re helping to accelerate Europe’s diversification from Russian gas. And that’s why we’re denying critical technology inputs that Russia needs to sustain its production capacity in oil and gas. So that’s kind of our strategic focus at the moment."