Jared Bernstein, economic adviser to President Joe Biden, had a tough time defending the still high gas prices that are hitting Americans' wallets during an interview with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Tuesday.
The Biden administration has been trying to take a victory lap for the average gas price dropping 80 cents from their historic high of being almost $6 during the early summertime. Even with the drop in price, the national average is $4.14, according to AAA. A year ago, the average price of gas $3.17.
This graphic from the Biden admin is an insult to the intelligence of the American people so I fixed it.
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 2, 2022
Biden is now bragging about gas at $4.18 per gallon. At his inauguration, gas was just $2.38. That's a difference of $1.80.
Biden is bragging about a 75% increase in price. https://t.co/YPFYLJvhHs pic.twitter.com/esV5vpGTGX
MacCallum had interviewed an owner of a tow truck company who said the prices for gas and diesel is still too high prior to having Bernstein on the show.
"I do think though that there’s a couple of fact checks I want to do. Someone said that they thought the gas price had couple down a couple cents. That’s just factually incorrect. It’s down 83 cents off of its peak since mid-June," Bernstein said.
"Jared, is that true for diesel fuel? That’s not true for diesel fuel. How much has diesel fuel come down?" MacCallum asked.
"Diesel fuel has also come down a lot. I don’t have the number in my head," Bernstein admitted.
The current average price of diesel is $5.25. A month ago, the average price was $5.74.
"Well she deals with it every single day, she fills up her tow trucks. I’m going with her on that," MacCallum said.
"Hold on, Martha. Wait a second. To say that diesel fuel has come down a couple of cents is absolutely incorrect. I will get you the number of cents. It’s not a couple of cents," Bernstein said.