Karine Jean-Pierre Ridiculed After Claiming Republicans Are Responsible for High Gas Prices

January 24, 2023
Karine Jean-Pierre delivered remarks to the media yesterday that suggested House Republicans, barely two weeks into serving as the majority, will be responsible for higher gas prices.
Screenshot: Twitter Video - @greg_price11

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre delivered remarks to the media yesterday that suggested House Republicans, barely two weeks into serving as the majority, will be responsible for higher gas prices in the near future.

Jean-Pierre’s comments reeked of desperation to pivot media coverage away from President Biden’s ongoing classified document scandal. And they were utterly laughable on their face.

“As many of you are tracking, this week, House Republicans will vote to raise gas prices on American families,” she opened her joint press briefing with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

“The contrast in priorities could not be more stark,” Jean-Pierre added. “The President spent the last two years, as you know, doing everything he could to lower gas prices for American families, and prices are down about $1.60 a gallon since last summer.”

“Now, House Republicans are using their narrow majority to force the American people to pay higher gas prices, just as big oil companies are amassing record profits.”

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Weapons-Grade Level of Gaslighting

Karine Jean-Pierre’s objections stem from a bill by House Republicans that would prohibit the energy secretary from tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) without a backup plan to increase oil and gas leasing on federal lands.

In other words, the GOP is trying to coax the administration into increasing domestic oil production which would leave the SPR intact and prevent the need to beg for oil production from countries like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

The SPR is, of course, for national security emergencies, not to be drained so Biden can claim to “lower gas prices.” 

President Biden repeatedly tapped the reserve and met with foreign leaders to pry them into greater oil production as a means to mitigate skyrocketing gas prices over the past year.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has insisted that not allowing the President to obliterate America’s reserves would undermine national security, cause crude oil shortages, and raise gasoline prices.

Those are all things that would, in reality, come from a failure to increase domestic production. But this administration rarely peddles in reality-based initiatives.

Instead, they engage in gaslighting (pun intended) the American people with their effortless lies.

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Karine Jean-Pierre Mocked For Her Take on Gas Prices

Karine Jean-Pierre’s take on gas prices, feigning concern that the American people would suffer at the pump, comes as prices have been above $3 per gallon for almost 20 months.

Twenty. Months.

She’s touting a national average of $3.45/gallon. On the day former President Trump left office, the national average was roughly $2.39/ gallon.

On a side note, this administration had spent months on end blaming ‘Putin’s price hike’ for higher gas prices but they’re now celebrating a slight decrease? Isn’t Putin still involved in a war with Ukraine? Shouldn’t it be ‘Putin’s cost savings’?

Anyway, Jean-Pierre’s comments stirred up heavy criticism on social media.

“There has never been a worse, more overtly dishonest and gaslighting press secretary than [Karine] Jean-Pierre,” tweeted Canadian lawyer David Freiheit.

My team of fact-checkers ran that statement through the wringer and concluded: True.

Townhall senior editor Matt Vespa seemed shocked by Jean-Pierre’s brazen attempt to divert the blame for outrageous gas prices away from President Biden.

“She did not just say this … your boss has been gashing us at the pump for months,” he wrote.

RedState columnist Buzz Patterson fired back, “She’s just not very good at her job.”

Hey! We’re not sure such criticism is allowed despite its obvious truth. She is female, black, and gay. What further credentials do you require, Mr. Patterson, to prove her eminent qualifications for the job?

And while the White House is suddenly taking credit for lower gas prices again by setting an arbitrary goalpost of ‘last summer,’ the real story is that they’re actually on the rise once more.

Damn those House Republicans and their platform of energy independence. They’ve been in the majority for less than 3 weeks and their SPR bill – which hasn’t been voted on and the President has promised to veto – has already increased gas prices.

That’s literally what Karine Jean-Pierre is trying to suggest.

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By Rusty Weiss

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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