President Joe Biden is harming national security by ordering the release of massive amounts of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The release is a cynical political move, but it will backfire.

Biden announced Thursday he would release a million barrels per day from the Reserve for six full months, meaning the size of the Reserve will drop by 32%. (And that’s from a stash already depleted by some 100 million barrels from its full capacity.) His goal is to try to force gasoline prices to drop. After spending 14 months doing almost everything imaginable to cause energy prices to rise, Biden now realizes the high prices at the pump are a massive threat to Democratic election prospects in November. Result: He now is misusing the Reserve to try to undo some of the political damage from his own policies.