This past Monday, Jake Tapper, an anchor with CNN, has made it entirely clear that he is not going to let White House economic adviser Brian Deese throw the blame for the currently sky-rocketing fuel prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his continued war against Ukraine.
“Today, on average, gas is costing $4.60 a gallon, that’s up more than $0.10 a gallon from last week, almost $0.50 from last month,” stated Tapper, noting that the record-high fuel prices that are currently plaguing the American people and highlighting that the fuel prices are expected to continue rising across the next few months. “We’re one week away from Memorial Day, should Americans be buckling up for these high prices all summer?”
Deese first shot back by stating that the administration of President Joe Biden was hard at work attempting to fight the rising gas prices, and then tried to spin the topic to throwing the blame for the fuel costs onto Putin and his war.
“We’re doing everything we can to bring those prices down. As you know, this all emanates from Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine —”
“Not all of it,” Tapper threw back, interrupting Deese. “Not all of it. Some of it, yes.”
“Just to be really clear, since troops started massing on the Ukrainian border and there was a concern that Russian supplies would come off, we have seen prices at the pump go up to $1.50. That is the price hike that is associated with the impact of taking Russian supply off the market,” Deese went on. “So, we’re doing everything we can to bring more supply onto the market.”
The Biden administration has been trying to attach the currently climbing prices, especially in regards to gasoline, to be a result of Russia’s current full-scale invasion of Ukraine for the past few weeks, often trying to spin the idea by labeling all of the price increases as the “Putin Price Hike.”
Peter Doocy, the Fox News White House Correspondent, fired back against the claim when it was originally made by then Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
“It sounds like you are blaming Putin for the increase in gas prices recently, but weren’t gas prices going up anyway because of post-pandemic supply chain issues?” he stated.
Psaki stated that gas prices were on the rise due to the war taking place in Ukraine, and made the argument that if they had gone up before the war started then it was just in anticipation of the upcoming war.
Doocy went on to challenge Psaki on the idea, asking what it would take for Old Uncle Joe to start taking down roadblocks to the ramping of more domestic production in order to help the global supply.
“Gas prices are approaching an all-time high per gallon. How high would they have to get before President Biden would say, ‘I’m going set aside my ambitious climate goals adjust increase domestic oil production, get the producers to drill more here, and we can address the fossil fuel future later?'” he stated.
Psaki responded by stating that the United States was currently already on track to reach full production.