Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis slammed President Joe Biden during a press conference this week over the high energy prices that are hurting American families.
DeSantis’ remarks came after Biden visited Saudi Arabia last week, and failed to secure a commitment from them to produce more oil to help lower prices in the U.S. Biden and his party appear poised to get shellacked in the upcoming midterms due to the shape of the economy and high inflation rates.
“How come it’s wrong to produce our own oil and gas here, but you can go to Saudi Arabia and fist bump to try to get it from Saudi?” DeSantis asked during Monday’s press conference. “I mean, it makes no sense that we wouldn’t do it. We have opportunities here to be energy independent and not have to worry about any of these other countries. And yet they’re intentionally not doing it and you can’t run a modern economy on windmills. You just can’t do it.”
“And so now we’re in a situation where they’re bragging that gas has gone down over the last however many weeks, it’s still over four bucks! Like I had never seen it over $4 in my whole life living here,” DeSantis continued. “It’s just when you’re cranking the printing presses, you’re making energy more expensive. You know, that creates an upward pressure on all of this stuff. And so the acceleration from May to June that we saw at the end of June, not only was — they said it wouldn’t happen, then they said it was a blip, and they said it would peak soon. It still didn’t peak even after that. And so that’s really making it difficult for a lot of people, you know, to make ends meet.
DeSantis added that any gains that people may come by in their personal finances are likely “wiped out immediately with the Bidenflation.”
Biden has consistently tried to pin the blame for high gas prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, but gas prices were on the rise even prior to Putin’s war. Gas prices hit $3.53 per gallon on February 21, three days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after gradually rising by nearly $1 since February 2021.
Oil and gas executives have even pointed to specific areas in the president’s policy, such as its restrictions on federal lands, that have affected the U.S. oil supply and resulted in Americans taking a bigger hit at the pump.
When Biden took over the office from former President Donald Trump, gas prices averaged around $2.38 per gallon nationwide. That price more than doubled in mid-June hitting $5.00, but has since decreased slightly. Today, the national average sits at $4.50, according to AAA, still more than double from when Trump left office.