(WASHINGTON) — During a trip to Los Angeles Thursday, President Joe Biden told reporters he plans to speak with Saudi Arabia soon, following the OPEC+ decision to slash oil production.

Asked what his message would be to Saudi Arabia on the price of gas, Biden said “We’re, we’re about to talk to them,” but he wouldn’t give more details, simply telling reporters to “stay tuned.”

Meanwhile, the Biden White House and Saudi foreign ministry leveled accusations against each other amid fallout from the OPEC+ move.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a lengthy statement Wednesday that the kingdom had turned down a U.S. request to delay the OPEC decision by a month — in effect, after the midterm elections in the U.S. — and took issue with any characterization that the decision “was politically motived against the United States of America.”

“The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would first like to express its total rejection of these statements that are not based on facts,” the ministry said, adding: “This decision was taken unanimously by all member states of the OPEC+ group.”

The White House fired back Thursday, with spokesman John Kirby saying in a written statement that other OPEC nations have communicated to the U.S. “privately” that they disagreed with Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut oil production — but felt “coerced” to support it anyway. In a call with reporters, he declined to name the other countries but said “there was more than one.”

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday did vote in favor of a U.S.-backed United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s attempt to annex parts of Ukraine. While Kirby called the vote “welcome,” he said “it doesn’t erase the fact that the decision that OPEC+ made was unnecessary, mathematically speaking.”

That decision, he said, provided not just economic support to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also moral and military support, “because it allows him to continue to fund his war-making machine and it certainly gave him, Mr. Putin, a sense of comfort here.”

It was a remarkable accusation to make about a longtime U.S. partner, albeit one with whom the U.S. relationship is rapidly fraying.

“The Saudi Foreign Ministry can try to spin or deflect, but the facts are simple,” Kirby said in the statement.

Kirby said the U.S. “presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed.”

He said Saudi Arabia took the “wrong direction” by taking a “they knew would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions” the U.S. and other Western nations had imposed in the wake of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.

For its part, the Saudi foreign ministry said it “clarified through its continuous consultation with the US Administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences.”

On Tuesday, Kirby said Biden thinks the United States needs to “reevaluate” its relationship with Saudi Arabia, especially in light of the decision by the OPEC+ oil cartel to cut production.

“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to reevaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “And certainly in light of the OPEC decision, I think that’s where he is.”

Kirby said Biden “is going to be willing to work with Congress as we think about what the right relationship with Saudi Arabia needs to be going forward.”

Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday called on the U.S. to “immediately freeze all aspects of our cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including any arms sales and security cooperation beyond what is absolutely necessary to defend U.S. personnel and interests.”

Other Democrats, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, on Wednedsay introduced a bill that would pause U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year.

Biden on Wednesday declined to take a position on the legislation. Kirby said Thursday “future arms sales… are certainly going to be on the table.”

“We understand that there are no imminent pending arms sales to Saudi Arabia right now,” Kirby told reporters. “So there’s not– you know, we’re not going to rush to make some kind of judgment here.”

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(WASHINGTON) — After more than a year of investigation, the House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday ended what was possibly its last public hearing in historic fashion — voting to subpoena former President Donald Trump.

The hearing featured no live witnesses but did include never-before-seen footage and documents collected by the panel during its two-month hiatus since its last hearing in July.

Videos showed congressional leaders fleeing the Capitol as rioters closed in on the complex, and communication between the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies revealed the many warnings and tips the agency received about possible violence.

In a dramatic finish, the committee said there’s one more person they — and the American people — need to hear from: Trump himself.

“Our duty today is to our country and our children and our constitution,” vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in her closing statement. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.”

Here are the key takeaways from Thursday’s hearing:

Committee unanimous in vote to subpoena Trump

Each committee member — seven Democrats and two Republicans — voted “aye” on a resolution offered by Cheney to compel Trump’s cooperation.

The resolution directs chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to issue a subpoena for relevant documents and testimony under oath from Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

Thompson argued there is precedent for Congress to compel the testimony of a president but recognized it was a “serious and extraordinary action.”

“That’s why we want to take this step in full view of the American people, especially because the subject matter at issue is so important to the American people and the stakes are so high to our future and our democracy,” he said.

Trump responded to the committee’s action for the first time in a post to Truth Social, his conservative social media platform.

“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?” he wrote while calling the committee a “total BUST.”

“Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting?” he asked again.

Secret Service was concerned leading up to, during the insurrection

New Secret Service communications unearthed by the House committee showed agents were concerned in the days before the insurrection about the threat of violence and during the riot about then-Vice President Mike Pence’s safety.

One tip the agency received before the attack, the committee said, indicated that the Proud Boys, a far-right group, “think[s] that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped.”

“Their plan is to literally kill people. Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further,” the tip showed by the committee read.

On the day of the insurrection, other communications presented showed how agents spotted members of the mob with firearms and other weapons.

“With so many weapons so far, you wonder how many are unknown. Could be sporty after dark,” one agent wrote in a message to a colleague. “No doubt. The people at the Ellipse said they are moving to the Capitol after the POTUS speech,” a second agent responded, referencing the speech Trump was giving before the riot.

As the crowd ransacked the Capitol, committee evidence showed, the agency also grew concerned about the safety for Pence after Trump posted a broadside on Twitter lambasting him for not blocking the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results.

“POTUS just tweeted about Pence, probably not going to be good for Pence,” one agent said in a chat with a colleague. Another colleague responded that the tweet had received over 24,000 likes in under two minutes.

The messages dovetail with videos showing rioters saying Pence “screwed” them and chants of “hang Mike Pence” ringing out around the Capitol.

Former Twitter employee Anika Collier Navaroli, in testimony featured Thursday, said Trump’s tweet helped spark calls for Pence’s “execution.”

New footage shows Pelosi, congressional leaders reacting to the attack

Videos aired Thursday showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers reacting to the events of Jan. 6 in real-time.

Pelosi spoke to or called various officials, including Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and then-acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and finally, then-Vice President Mike Pence.

The video was shot by Alexandra Pelosi, a filmmaker and the speaker’s daughter, who had been filming the day’s events as a part of a documentary project.

Pelosi was seen at times engaged in a bipartisan effort, huddling with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, often in discussion about how to move forward to certify the 2020 election results in a timely manner.

“We’ve got … to finish the proceedings or else they will have a complete victory,” Pelosi is heard saying as she is leaving the Capitol complex while rioters gather outside. “There has to be some way we can maintain the sense that people have, that there’s some security or some confidence that the government can function. And that we can elect the president of the United States.”

At one point, after being informed that individuals still on the House floor were putting on tear gas masks in anticipation of a breach, Pelosi said: “Can you believe this?”

The committee also played new footage of Pelosi speaking with Pence as Trump supporters were in the middle of storming the Capitol.

“We’re trying to figure out how we can get this job done today,” she said, noting the “overriding wish is to do it at the Capitol.

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