Fox News’ Bill Hemmer cut off President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser when he tried to blame former President Joe Biden for high gas prices amid the Iran war.
Oil prices have surged as Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway in the Middle East that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil. The national average cost of gas has exceeded $4 a gallon in the U.S. as Americans bear the brunt of Trump’s war against Iran.
Hemmer asked National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on America’s Newsroom Friday about the rising gas prices.
The national average price of gas currently sits at around $4.09 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. A month ago, it was around $3.11 a gallon, and a year ago it was a tad higher at around $3.26 a gallon, AAA says.
“Maybe your forecast is the place to start here. Where do you see this going?” Hemmer asked Hassett.
“Our expectation is this is gonna last just a little bit longer and then things will get back to normal much faster than you could expect,” Hassett said. “The bottom line is though that we have taken every possible measure to minimize the disruption along the way.”
The economic council chief mentioned the 172 million barrels of oil that the Trump administration is releasing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“It’s the second-largest release of the strategic reserve on record,” Hassett said.
“I’d like to remind everybody once again that we could have had a bigger strategic reserve effect except for the fact that right before the midterm election, Joe Biden — he’s the one who had the biggest release of the strategic reserve and there was no supply disruption at the time — he was just trying to offset all those terrible energy policies and get gas prices down ahead of the election,” he continued.
Hemmer then interjected, “Ok, but that was then, and this is now. And what’s now is West Texas crude, which is what we produce here in the U.S. We’re a net exporter of oil.
“On February 27, it was $67 a barrel. Now we’re at $111 for West Texas crude. I think the question there is, what can our economy tolerate? How high can it go?”
Hassett insisted that the high gas prices are a “temporary phenomenon and it’s going to end very soon.”
The U.S., along with Israel, began launching strikes against Iran nearly five weeks ago, on February 28. In that time, U.S. Central Command said it has struck more than 12,300 targets.
Trump touted his perceived wins in the war during his national address Wednesday, telling the American people, “Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks.”
But it’s still unclear when the war will end, and in the meantime, Americans are feeling the economic pressure at the pump and beyond.
