On Thursday, Fox News Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki what her administration believes are the reasons for current inflation and rising gas prices – and it got a little testy.
The exchange took place during the White House’s daily press briefing.
Doocy 🔥🔥: "inflation goes up today. The President's statement blames the #PutinPriceHike. Are you guys going to just start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?"
Psaki: "Well, we've seen the price of gas go up at least $.75 since…Putin lined up troops[.]" pic.twitter.com/WcmfcQDSWL
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 10, 2022
Doocy: ‘Are you guys just going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?’
Doocy asked Psaki how long inflation the administration once called “temporary” would last.
Psaki replied, “I think what we do, is we rely on the assessments of the Federal Reserve and of outside economic analysts who give an assessment of how long it will last.”
“The expectations and their assessment at this point continues to be that it will moderate by the end of the year,” she added.
Psaki said it was inevitable Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have an “impact.”
“There’s also no question that when a foreign dictator invades a foreign country, and when that foreign dictator is the head of a country that is the third largest supplier of oil in the world, that that is going to have an impact, and it is,” the press secretary explained.
“So, to that point,” Doocy responded, “inflation goes up today. The president’s statement blames the ‘Putin price hike,’ are you guys just going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?”
Gotta love @pdoocy!! He just asked Jen Psaki if the WH was planning to blame Putin for everything going forward. 🤣🤣🤣
— #ConservTXmom (@ConservTXmom) March 10, 2022
Before Russia Invaded Ukraine, The Biden Administration Blamed Inflation On The COVID-19 Pandemic
Doocy also asked Team Biden why they did not say that Putin was responsible for inflation before the invasion, and instead said it was due to the pandemic.
“The last two years there was a global pandemic,” Psaki responded. “Everyone who is a global economist have all agreed that has been the biggest contributor, to date, of inflation, because of the impact on the supply chain.”
“Obviously global events impact the economy — the global economy — as well as global inflation,” she said. “And the price hikes, as a result, that have escalated over the course of time of President Putin’s further invasion … are of course having an impact.”
