The Biden administration certainly has had a one-sided view of talking about gas prices. Whenever they were at their highs, and they, along with natural gas, were at record highs in previous months, there was always someone else to blame. When gas prices went down slightly, though it's worth reminding that they're still far higher than they were under the Trump administration, Democrats jumped to take credit.
During Tuesday's press briefing, Fox News' Peter Doocy sought to question White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about that narrative.
DOOCY: "You've said the president was responsible for gas prices coming down. Is he responsible for gas prices going up?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 4, 2022
KJP: "So, it's a lot more nuanced than that." pic.twitter.com/8P1P1JPa2v
"You've said the president was responsible for gas prices coming down. Is the president responsible for gas prices going up," Doocy asked Jean-Pierre. "So, it's a lot more nuanced than that, right," she tried to offer as a response, adding "Peter, you know this."
The press secretary then launched into using recycled talking points to blame other people and events on rising gas prices. This amounts to how "there have been global challenges that we have all have dealt with," which Jean-Pierre clarified that "all means other countries, as well have dealt with since the pandemic. There's been pandemic and there's been Putin's war," she also mentioned, which has been an oft-repeated talking point from this administration, including from President Joe Biden himself. "And Putin's war, has, uh, increased gas prices at the pump. We have seen that over the past several months," Jean-Pierre tried to double down on, despite how gas prices had been rising even before Russia's Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
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Jean-Pierre attempted to provide not only cover, but also credit for this administration. "And what the president was able to do," she offered, "uh, he took some historic steps, when you think about the strategic petroleum reserve, and making sure that he--we were able to do everything that we can to bring that cost down, uh for American families, give them a little bit more of a breathing room."
The Biden administration has been touting the president's decision to tap into the strategic petroleum reserve for months now, something of a bizarre move given that they've done so with reckless abandon and despite heavy criticism. It's now reached critically low crisis levels.
And, when it comes to the claim that has been "able to do everything that we can to bring that cost down," it's conveniently left out that Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of his administration, via an executive order. This isn't the only pipeline that Biden has halted, either, as part of his larger war on energy.
Furthering how much of a celebration the White House seems to think still higher than they were previously gas prices are, Jean-Pierre offered "we saw that every day this summer, over, saving American families over a dollar per gallon, and so that is what the president is going to continue, to stay focused on our American consumers, how do we continue to keep prices down?"
As the exchange with Doocy continued, Jean-Pierre continued to claim there were "historic actions that the president took" and they're looking to "continue to lower prices," before moving on to taking a question from another reporter.
For all of this administration celebrating gas prices, polls still showed that the American people remained concerned.
Prices are rising again, though, as even CNN admitted weeks ago, in addition to them having called out Biden for bragging so much. As usual, though, Jean-Pierre doesn't seem to have grasped that lately narrative so as to be able to best communicate to the White House press pool and the American people what's really going on.
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