Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Tuesday pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about whether fixing the economy is a priority for President Joe Biden and his administration.
Doocy said Biden previously promised that tackling the economy is his top priority before pointing out that Biden vowed during a speech Tuesday that a bill codifying Roe v. Wade would be the first piece of legislation he would sign into law in 2023 if Democrats win the House and the Senate.
Jean-Pierre argued that fixing inflation is the president’s top “economic priority,” and added the president addressed abortion because it is an important issue for the majority of Americans.
“What is the president’s top domestic priority now, is it inflation or is it abortion?” Doocy asked.
“The president is going to continue to talk about issues that matter to the American people, and abortion is one of them. The majority of the American people disagree with the decision that the Supreme Court made, the Dobbs decision. The majority of the people disagreed with that. When it comes to the economy, the president has made it very, very clear, when it comes to inflation, it is his number one economic priority, and he’s doing everything that he can to make sure that we lower prices for the American people,” Jean-Pierre said.
“It’s his number one economic priority — we’ve heard the president say inflation is his top domestic priority, but now he’s saying, come next year, his first bill would be abortion-related, so is his number-one domestic priority abortion, or is it inflation?” he asked. (RELATED: Doocy Asks Karine Point Blank: ‘Who Exactly Thinks The President Is Doing A Good Job On Inflation?’)
The press secretary said the president made inflation and the economy his top priority by passing the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, pieces of legislation which intend to lower healthcare and prescription costs and invest in local governments and green energy. She claimed these pieces of legislation are lowering costs for the American people, despite several economists saying the big spending bills have contributed to inflation.
Doocy then questioned the president’s argument that the U.S. is “strong as hell” as the nation is “barreling toward a recession.” Jean-Pierre argued the job market and labor force are “strong,” and are transitioning into a period of “steady growth” due to the Biden administration’s efforts.
The Fox News reporter transitioned to a question on the president tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in order to lower gas prices by increasing domestic oil supply. The press secretary reiterated the White House’s past arguments that there are 9,000 approved, unused drilling permits, and that oil production is currently higher than in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“If President Biden keeps going to the [Strategic] Petroleum Reserves when there are energy problems, is he giving up on his campaign pledge to end fossil fuel?” Doocy asked.
“There is no shortage of opportunity or incentive for oil companies to ramp up production,” Jean-Pierre answered. “We’ve made that clear. Oil companies are ranking in record profits, as we have seen — they have shown it themselves, we’ve seen it ourselves — while more than 9,000 approved drilling permits remain untapped by the oil industry. At the same time, U.S. oil production is up and on track to reach a record high this year. Again, a record high.”
The Biden administration holds the record for the highest average number of barrels produced per day over the course of a presidency, going from 11 million under Trump to 11.2 million currently, WUSA9 reported in July, citing statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.