OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy tore into Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre this week over soaring inflation hurting the United States.
During the press briefing, Doocy asked Jean-Pierre whether President Joe Biden took any responsibility for implementing policies that played a role in increasing inflation.
After noting inflation and gas prices reaching record highs, Doocy asked: “In some places in this country now, a gallon of gas costs more than the people on the federal minimum wage are making in an hour. What does the White House want these people to do? Just stop driving to work?”
Jean-Pierre responded by claiming Biden understood what the American people were feeling, saying, “He understands what it means for people who are sitting at their kitchen table and see gas prices go up.”
She then blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for rising gas prices, which has become a key talking point for Democrats.
Doocy doubled down and asked again if Biden believed his policies were impacting inflation.
“You just mentioned Putin a few times as a reason for recent inflation. Do you guys think that any part of inflation this year is because of President Biden’s spending plans? Or is it all Putin’s fault?” Doocy asked.
After Jean-Pierre dodged the question again, Doocy tried a third time: “So I guess the next question would be, does President Biden take any responsibility for his policies potentially contributing to inflation?”
“His policies has [sic] helped the economy gets back on its feet. That’s what his policies has [sic] — his policies has [sic] done,” Jean-Pierre insisted. “This — when we talk about the gas prices right now, this is indeed Putin’s gas hike. This is what we have seen in the most recent months of what we’re seeing at the gas pump. And so that is a fact, we have seen about 60% increase in the past several months.”
WATCH:
DOOCY TIME: "Canada is making it impossible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in that country. Would…Biden ever consider a similar restriction on handguns here?"
KJP says while "other countries" can "set their [own] polic[ies]," Biden "does not support that pic.twitter.com/yFuA08UUVw
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 31, 2022
Doocy: "You just mentioned Putin a few times as a reason for recent inflation. Do you guys think that any part of inflation…is b/c of…Biden's spending plans? Or is it all Putin's fault?"
Jean-Pierre says the economy's "at a historic place" with job creation & unemployment pic.twitter.com/e1D4dSIbss
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 31, 2022
Doocy: "Does President Biden take any responsibility for his policies potentially contributing to inflation?"
Karine Jean-Pierre: "His policies has [sic] helped the economy gets back on its feet. That's what his policies has [sic] — his policies has [sic] done." pic.twitter.com/vYGpboygRc
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 31, 2022
Gas prices took another big step in the wrong direction this week as the national average for regular gasoline climbed by five cents on Wednesday to a fresh record of $4.67 a gallon.
“That leaves gas prices up by 48 cents in the past month alone,” CNN reported.
“Seven states now average $5 or higher, with Illinois becoming the latest to join that unpopular club, according to AAA. New York and Arizona are just pennies away from the $5 threshold. The average in California now stands at $6.19 a gallon,” the report added. “Brent crude, the world benchmark, gained 1% on Tuesday to close at the highest level in nearly three months. Brent is up another 1.2% Wednesday morning. The gains come after Europe agreed to phase out 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year.”
“The national average for regular gas is now 44 cents higher than on the day President Joe Biden announced the largest-ever release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in late March,” the report stated.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was forced to admit on Tuesday that she “got it wrong on inflation.”
As inflation began to rise, the Biden White House claimed that it was transitory and was not something to worry about.
Inflation hit 40-years highs this spring, which is absolutely something to “worry about.”
“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen told CNN in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room,” responding to a question about her 2021 comment that inflation was a “small risk.”
