NPR's Mara Liasson asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki during Thursday's briefing about reports that the U.S. is seeking to restart oil imports from Venezuela to offset banning Russian oil. <blockquote>MARA LIASSON, NPR: The administration has been criticized for putting sanctions on one dictator and then going hat in hand to other dictators, like Venezuela. How do you explain that? PSAKI: I think our engagement with Maduro -- who we don't recognize as the leader of Venezuela, but who is detaining American citizens -- was to bring Americans home. That was our first priority in those engagements. There is not, as you're all assessing -- LIASSON: It had nothing to do with energy? PSAKI: There are a range of topics that we discussed. Largely, the discussion was about our approach to the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela is the largest producer of oil in the world. Or one of them in the world. Ed gave me a funny look, I appreciate that. One of them. In the world. Our conversation was about a range of issues, including encouraging, of course, them to be engaging in steps towards peace. As you may have seen, Maduro has announced his intention to be a part of the talks with the opposition in Mexico. But as you are assessing how to spend your energy in this time of a lot of New in the world, I would not focus a lot of your attention on conversations about the future of the U.S. importing oil at this in time. </BLOCKQUOTE>