The Biden administration is grasping at straws to increase the Democrats’ election chances in November.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre touted that Americans have saved $420 million on gas since pump prices hit all-time recorded highs earlier this year — even as President Joe Biden just announced that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) would be releasing 15 million more barrels of oil.
Karine Jean-Pierre: Americans are saving $420 million every day at the gas pump! pic.twitter.com/I2USuYF6i6
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) October 18, 2022
“Every month, the typical two-driver family saves about $120 at the pump compared to where we were in mid-June,” Jean-Pierre said at Tuesday’s press conference. “Every day, Americans save about $420 million at the pump compared to mid-June.”
On Monday, the average price for a gallon of gas was $3.871, a 23 percent drop from the $5.006 Americans paid in June.
Jean-Pierre’s comments garnered negative responses on Twitter, with many calling the Biden administration out of touch amid continued economic downturn.
“That’s like using a $.20 coupon to buy an item that is $.60 more than it was originally, then thinking to myself, ‘I feel better about my spending habits. Look how much money I’m saving!’,” one user tweeted. “Do people really not see this? They think we are really that dumb?”
“You can’t have it both ways, KJP,” wrote another. “If we’re saving that much, then the Biden-Harris administration COST us millions.”
This comes as Biden announced on Monday that the SPR would be releasing 10 to 15 million more in an apparent effort to lower gas prices.
“We need to responsibly increase American oil production without delaying or deferring our transition to clean energy. My administration has not stopped or slowed US oil production,” Biden said in a press conference. “Without the steps we’ve taken over the last several months, gas prices would be higher than they are today.”
About one million barrels per day are being released from the SPR through October. The flow is draining the reserve, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986. However, U.S. officials claim that oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.
Democrats are fearing that the infighting and overall dissatisfaction with Biden’s performance as president could cost them their majority in Congress during the November 8 midterm elections, so it makes sense that they’re getting desperate to get votes.
