White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that the topic of inflation won’t bring down Joe Biden during the presidential debate against former President Donald Trump.
Jean-Pierre falsely claimed food costs have gone down since 2022 during her Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for the elevated food prices.
“So, yes, eggs and milk and there are grocery things that were up, it has gone down,” Jean-Pierre said. “It has gone down since 2022.”
Prices have not gone down: data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that since 2021 the price of eggs have skyrocketed by over 50% and the price of milk shot up by over 13%.
Jean-Pierre then blamed high gas prices on Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Gas prices, because of the actions that this president took, and let’s not forget there was an invasion. Russia did obviously enter Ukraine. That caused gas prices to tick up,” Jean-Pierre said.
“The president took action, tapped the SPR, and we saw gas prices go down. The president has met the moment with every issue that we have had in front of us. The president obviously talks about that often. He’s going to have another opportunity on Thursday to speak to those issues.”
Gasoline prices steadily climbed from an average $2.34 a gallon in 2021 to $3.56 today — with a peak in mid-2022 at $5.11 per gallon — resulting in a total price increase of 52.14%.
Contrary to Jean-Pierre’s brazenly false talking points, Biden doesn’t have a leg to stand on with the issue of inflation, which Trump should repeatedly highlight when discussing their economic policy differences at Thursday’s debate.
Watch KJP’s full interview:
