Pete Buttigieg torches those who criticized Joe Biden for rising gas prices

04 August 2022

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently weighed in with a critical response to those who previously blamed President Joe Biden for gas prices. Those same critics have been eerily silent over the last several weeks as gas prices have declined substantially.

On Thursday, August 4, Buttigieg appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe where he discussed the drop in gas prices."We're seeing it go under four bucks in more and more places, but not everywhere and, of course, we want to see it continue to go down past that," Buttigieg told Mika Brzezinski.

According to the American Automobile Association, gas prices have dropped approximately $0.70 nationwide from an average of $4.81 to $4.139. Although prices are still higher than they were in August 2021, Buttigieg believes prices are beginning to settle.

"I do think a lot of the settling in oil prices has been influenced by the leadership that the president showed earlier this summer," Buttigieg said.

He went on to note the number of different factors that play a part in how global oil markets fluctuate as he criticized the Republican lawmakers who used soaring gas prices as an opportunity to slam Biden.

"It's funny that there are some folks out there who wanted you to think that it was completely up to the president what the gas prices were when they were going up and have been silent now that they have been going back down every single day for 50 days," he said.

Buttigieg's remarks come months after gas prices soared amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last month, Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia to discuss the possibility of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) increasing the production of oil.

On Wednesday, August 3, it was announced that the OPEC+ would produce an additional 100,000 barrels of gas each day in the month of September. The White House also stressed the importance of oil and gas prices continuing to decline.

"The fact of the matter is that oil and gas prices are coming down," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. "The moment he announced his trip, we saw gas prices and oil prices coming down."

"Bottom line: we need to continue pursuing the measures that are under the control of policymakers.

"But also recognize that the best thing we can do for the medium and long term is make sure Americans have more options through greater fuel efficiency and greater access to vehicles that don't require gasoline at all so that Americans don't have to worry about what's happening in some Middle Eastern capital or foreign war zone."

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