President Joe Biden on Thursday continued to blame Russian leader Vladimir Putin for high gasoline prices when not trash-talking the Supreme Court.
During a news conference in Madrid where NATO nations are gathered, Biden said Americans will pay high gas prices “for as long as it takes.”
According to a transcript of the news conference, Biden was asked how long he expects American motorists to pay high gas prices.
“As long as it takes so Russia cannot, in fact, defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine,” Biden said. “This is a critical, critical position for the world.”
REPORTER: "How long is it fair to expect American drivers…to pay that premium for this war?"
BIDEN: "As long as it takes." pic.twitter.com/ewlUvFyoZK
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 30, 2022
Some poked holes in that logic.
“As long as it takes,” is Biden speak for “until everyone can no longer afford to drive and I completely break America and her economy.” https://t.co/AaHutHPJn3
— Erin Perrine (@ErinMPerrine) June 30, 2022
Biden was asked how long it’s fair to ask Americans to pay record high gas prices.
Biden: “As long as it takes.”
Not sure that’s a strong midterm message. pic.twitter.com/RRwJYdHwNB
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) June 30, 2022
President Biden really thinks Americans are morons who are dumb enough to believe this. Unreal. We should be ramping up domestic energy production and making the United States energy independent again. https://t.co/rosPnF708Q
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) June 30, 2022
After saying prices would not go down, Biden said there was a way for prices to go down if a price cap being discussed by G7 nations for Russian oil takes place as he plans.
“The point is that we’ve said to them, ‘Here’s the deal: We’re going to allow you to have a profit on what you make but not the exorbitant prices that you’re charging for the oil now,’” Biden said. “We think it can be done, and it would drive down the price of oil, and it would drive down the price of gasoline as well.”
Biden also said that his release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, temporarily ending the federal gas tax and then having states put their state gas taxes on pause “could bring down the price of oil about a dollar a gallon at the pump, in that range.”
Although gas prices had risen before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Biden said that “the bottom line is: Ultimately, the reason why gas prices are up is because of Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia.”
On the subject of his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, Biden was asked, “Do you expect to ask the Crown Prince or the King to increase oil production?”
“Well, first of all, that’s not the purpose of the trip,” Biden said, later adding that if he met with Saudi rulers, he would not ask them to increase oil production.
Biden was also asked, “How do you explain this to those people who feel the country is going in the wrong direction, including some of the leaders you’ve been meeting with this week …?”
“They do not think that. You haven’t found one person — one world leader to say America is going backwards. America is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been. We have the strongest economy in the world. Our inflation rates are lower than other nations in the world,” Biden said, before taking the Supreme Court to task.
“The one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States on overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy. We’ve been a leader in the world in terms of personal rights and privacy rights, and it is a mistake, in my view, for the Supreme Court to do what it did.
“I can understand why the American people are frustrated because of what the Supreme Court did. I can understand why the American people are frustrated because of inflation. But inflation is higher in almost every other country. Prices at the pump are higher in almost every other country. We’re better positioned to deal with this than anyone, but we have a way to go. And the Supreme Court — we have to change that decision by codifying Roe v. Wade,” Biden said.
After saying that “We are going to support Ukraine as long as it takes,” Biden later noted that “So we are going to stick with Ukraine and all of the Alliance is going to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes to, in fact, make sure that they are not defeated by — by Ukraine — I mean, excuse me, in Ukraine by — by Russia.”
Story cited here.
