The Five - Thursday, July 21
On today’s episode, ‘The Five’ reacts to President Biden testing positive to COVID-19, while the White House doesn’t know where he caught it. Later, Biden wants to ‘refund’ the police as crime surges across America.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took to Twitter to brag about falling gas prices while blasting oil refiners for making profits Thursday.
The official White House Twitter account published a video featuring Jean-Pierre describing the recent falling prices in gas across the nation.
"So, gas prices have been declining across the country. In the past more than 30 days we have seen gas prices go down by more than 50 cents per gallon," Jean Pierre said in the video.
While showing a graph in the video, Jean-Pierre exclaimed, "This is so exciting, guys. I’m in the graph!"
President Joe Biden speaks about gas prices in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
She continued, "In more than 20,000 gas stations just across the country, as you’ll see in this graph, you will see gas prices less than $4. At current prices, the average American driver will spend about $25 per month less on gasoline than they would have if prices had stayed at their June peak."
"But gas prices aren’t coming down at the same pace as declining oil prices," Jean-Pierre also noted.
She explained, "So while oil prices have decreased by about 20% since their June peak, as I was just talking about earlier, prices at the pump have only fallen about 10% over the same period. So that means profits are up way above average. Refiners’ profit margins per gallon of gas are averaging about 90 cents last week, roughly double what’s typical for this time of the year."
U.S. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 16, 2022. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The national average gas price, as of Thursday, was around $4.40. While the price is down about 20 cents from last week’s average, it is still over a dollar higher than prices this time last year and two dollars more than when Biden first took office.
BRIAN BRENBERG ON ‘OUTNUMBERED’: BIDEN SHOULD NOT BE ‘BRAGGING’ ABOUT $4.50 GAS
Although members of the White House are seeking to take credit for this drop, critics have noted that Biden had previously blamed record-high gas prices on Russia’s war with Ukraine, citing a "Putin Price Hike."
Reporters even questioned the double standard Biden holds for himself to his senior economic adviser Jared Bernstein on Monday.
"I think there is no ‘both ways’ thinking here at all," said Bernstein. "I very much disagree with that framing."
Various members of the Biden administration have still continued to take credit for the decline including Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and even President Biden himself.
Brie Olootu pumps gas at an Exxon Mobil gas station on June 09, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Getty Images)
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Jean-Pierre ended the video saying, "Gas prices should continue to decline, and President Biden is committed to doing everything that he can to give families a little bit of breathing room."
While gas prices have gone down a bit, inflation rates hit a record 40-year high in June at 9.1% and the Russian war in Ukraine continues.