As Mark Knoller quipped on Twitter, we’re all looking forward to a doctoral thesis exploring the cultural and diplomatic differences between a fist bump and a handshake. Joe Biden’s team fumbled the expectations game on his Mideast trip by telling reporters that handshakes would be out only to have Biden gladhanding Israelis in full view of the cameras. Biden then followed that up with a fraternal fist-bump with Mohammed Bin Salman, the man behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Biden’s main target for turning Saudi Arabia into a “pariah state.”

It’s a long way from pariahs to fist bumps, Jake Tapper accurately declares in a CNN interview late yesterday afternoon with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE). The hypocrisy of that moment “revolted” Americans, Tapper argued, and demanded an explanation from Coons. We need the oil, Coons replies, but apparently not enough to get it from ourselves:

Jake Tapper: "He said he was going to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah nation… I mean, that fist bump photograph, I think a lot of Americans saw that and were revolted by it."

Chris Coons says he was "revolted" by Bucha while presenting it as a "brutal and tough choice." pic.twitter.com/DUYPdjlRcj

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 15, 2022

TAPPER: So, Senator, first of all, Joe Biden when he was running for president, he said he was going to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah nation. Okay? He said he was going to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah nation. He flew to Saudi Arabia, and he fist bumped Mohammed bin Salman, the man responsible, according to Biden’s own director of national intelligence, for ordering a brutal murder of a “Washington Post” journalist, killing him and then dismembering him with a bone saw.

I mean, that fist bump photograph, I think a lot of Americans saw that and were revolted by it.

COONS: What I’m revolted by is what I saw in Bucha and what is a brutal and tough choice that our president faces is the path forward. When Russians are committing horrific human rights abuses every day in Ukraine, when the unity of the West and NATO is at risk, if we cannot secure additional resources for the gas and oil needs to replace Russian oil and gas in the coming months, and bluntly, our president faced a tough choice. The only three countries that have significant untapped reserves are Venezuela, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. And I think our president made a tough choice but one I can respect as long as he continues to raise and press human rights issues.

Ahem. The United States also has significant untapped reserves, especially in the Gulf, on both coasts, and in Alaska, not to mention the potential in places we have yet to explore. Biden went hat in hand to Saudi Arabia not as the least worst choice, but out of a bad set of policy decisions made by Biden and Democrats.

Biden didn’t need to fist-bump MBS, at least not for access to increased production of oil. He chose to do so rather than eat crow and admit that his energy policies have produced an economic and strategic disaster. It’s interesting, and very very telling, which of Biden’s political stands he’s willing to compromise to deal with a crisis.

More from the transcript:

COONS: Absolutely, the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was horrifying. I would rather not be on this show saying that our president went and met with MBS. But given the situation we’re in in the world today, given what changed on February 24th, given what we all know about the ongoing murders, the brutal killing of innocent civilians happening every single day in Ukraine, I support our president.

TAPPER: The fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi tweeted this in response to the fist bump photo. It says, quote, what Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today. And then there is a tweet from Khashoggi, saying hey, POTUS, president of the United States, is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’ next victim is on your hands.

The president’s response to that was to say he was sorry that Khashoggi’s fiancee felt that way.

What do you say to her?

COONS: Well, I hope to have a chance to talk with her directly. I know that senior White House officials did meet with her before this trip. And I think it is important that we listen to Jamal Khashoggi’s widow, fiancee as you describe her, those in the journalism community, those in the Saudi dissident and Diaspora community who find this a profoundly offensive moment and are gravely concerned about what comes next.

I do think that engagement with MBS at a moment when he was making a choice between leaning more towards the west or leaning far further towards Russia and China, was a hard choice but one where I trust our president to sustain his commitment to human rights and to do the best thing he can in a tough circumstance.

This is utter nonsense. Biden made his “pariah state” comments as an attack not so much on MBS and the Saudis but on Donald Trump, whose preference for realpolitik was not just admitted but the basis of Trump’s policy. Biden wanted to claim that he would restore moral order to American diplomacy, but more importantly, Biden really wanted to pander to American media outlets and their outrage over the Saudi assassination of Khashoggi. Trump, meanwhile, wanted to keep the Saudis close to prevent Russia and China from expanding their influence and to firm up an anti-Iran alliance between Israel and the Sunni states, which Trump and his team called the Abraham Accords.

Having watched Biden climb onto that high horse during the election, Coons now wants to credit Biden for changing positions back to the status quo ante on strategic alignment in the Middle East, as well as access to expanded oil supply. Coons somehow forgets that the US has a massive amount of proven reserves that Biden is not only blocking but still pledging to prevent from ever being accessed or used.

The fist bump is bad enough, and good on Tapper for keeping the heat on Coons over it, but it’s only a part of Biden’s moral collapse. Biden’s willing to fist-bump MBS while at the same time demagoguing small-business gas station owners as the villains of a supply crisis that Biden’s own policies created and are making actively worse.  Biden’s cowardly blameshifting on gas prices is an even bigger moral failure, and it’s too bad the rest of the media as a whole hasn’t been as interested in exposing that.

Addendum: And Biden did all of this for nothing, as it turns out:

Al Saud sought to pour cold water over Washington's hopes that its decision to open its airspace to all civilian carriers would be a first step toward formal relations with Israel.

— Jacob Magid (@JacobMagid) July 16, 2022

The Saudi Foreign Minister says oil production was not discussed at the Jeddah summit.

“We listen to our partners and friends from all over the world especially consumer countries. But at the end of the day, OPEC+ follows the market situation and will supply energy as needed.”

— annmarie hordern (@annmarie) July 16, 2022

MBS got even more pointed later:

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Saturday more investment was needed in fossil fuel and clean energy technologies to meet global demand, and that unrealistic emission policies would lead to unprecedented levels of inflation.

The prince said Saudi Arabia had announced raising its production capacity to 13 million barrels per day by 2027 from a nameplate capacity of 12 million now and “after that the Kingdom will not have any more capability to increase production”.

He was addressing a U.S.-Arab summit in Jeddah attended by President Joe Biden, who is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.

“Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices, and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems,” Prince Mohammed said.

We know, we know. By Coons’ metric, Biden’s fist-bump was a pointless flop, at least in the short run.