Biden pivots away from blaming Putin for high gas prices (guess who's up next)

Doug P. | 1:47 PM on March 16, 2022

Fairly recently the Biden White House settled on a “Putin’s price hikes” spin as an attempted cover for spiking inflation and gas prices (many in the media were of course happy to help):

This was the White House spin after a report about the February inflation rate:

At the same time, today’s inflation report is a reminder that Americans‘ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike. A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin’s aggressive actions. As I have said from the start, there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin’s unprovoked war, but Americans can know this: the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are far more devastating than the costs we are facing.

It’s possible the White House either wasn’t happy that the “Putin’s price hikes” narrative wasn’t resonating or they thought they’d get better approval rating mileage out of pointing the finger of blame elsewhere:

Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too.

Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31.

Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/uLNGleWBly

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022

Are high gas prices because of Putin’s aggression or Big Oil corporate greed? The shift in blame is dizzying.

Your cabinet has been out in force saying your goal is to eliminate U.S. fossil fuel. Prices have been going up for a year because of your policies, regulation and threats. The market reflects this.

P.S. it takes weeks for prices at gas stations to catch up with spikes. https://t.co/hAYHuBPV89

— Kevin D. Jones (@Kevin_D_Jones) March 16, 2022

I guess we're past the short phase of Team Biden trying to be nice to energy companies to get them to produce more, and back to this crew's sweet spot. https://t.co/MUz5wJ96aj

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) March 16, 2022

Right? Not long ago Biden was asking the same companies he’s expressed an interest in putting out of business to increase their output. The mixed messages from this administration are nothing short of amazing.

***

Gov. Ron DeSantis has a much more accurate term for what the WH calls ‘Putin’s price hike’