MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Putin Believing Saudi Arabia and the US Conspiring on Lowering Gas Prices

Interview

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Congressman John Garamendi of California joins us tonight. He`s the member of the Armed Services Committee in Congress.

Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time.

JOHN GARAMENDI, (D) CALIFORNIA: Always good to be with you Ed and happy.

SCHULTZ: Looking.

GARAMENDI: . go ahead.

SCHULTZ: You bet. You know, looking at these numbers, and what it is doing to the Russian economy, how nervous is that make you knowing that Putin can be a pretty unpredictable character.

How do you -- what do you make all of this?

GARAMENDI: Well, anytime there is trouble in any economy. It`s time to be concerned. Certainly Putin is presumably ought to be concerned about it.

He needs to secure his political fortunes in Russia by blaming somebody to suggest that Saudi Arabia and United States are conspiring to lower gas prices to harm Russia as far fetch but that is precisely what he is probably telling his people. There`s got to be some enemy.

The problem for us is, is he going to reach outside his own country to find
trouble elsewhere to take attention away from what is going to be, a troubled economy in the year ahead. That can be a concern and certainly we`ve already seen some of that in the Ukraine.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. The Former Finance Minister of Russia warmed of a "full blown economic crisis" and called for better relations with Europe and the United States. That doesn`t sound like the way Putin operates. What are your expectations?

GARAMENDI: Well, maybe it`s the yin and the yang, maybe it`s the left and
the right trying to find someway to stabilize their situation but I don`t
see these oil prices moving very far. We do have and all of the above
domestic policy here.

We`ve seen that 4 million barrel a day increase in domestic production since President Obama has taking office and it`s his policy. We`ve also seen a major step forward in the United States on all of the green technologies. We just passed a new tax law that continued the subsidies for all of the green technologies.

So, we`re going to track here to, one, maintain our oil production and our gas production as well as moving very aggressively to other technologies to provide us with the energy we need -- solar, wind, biofuels of all kinds.

So I don`t think we`re going to see.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: . these prices go up very rapidly. Now OPEC may step in. There`s talk that they may but they are not going to be able to really easily overcome the all of the above strategies that President Obama has put in place successfully here in the United States.

SCHULTZ: Congressman John Garamendi, great to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time so much. Thanks so much.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio Host.

Mike, there is geopolitical play here now with Keystone. If the President approves Keystone it`s -- I think as far as Putin is concern, it`s going to make it look like we`re through on more oil on the market to make their economy worst. What do you make at this play?

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