Sunday 3 July 2022 09:24 PM John Kirby defends Biden after Jeff Bezos accuses president of 'misdirection' ... trends now

The Biden administration is hitting back at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Sunday after the billionaire suggested President Joe Biden is either ignorantly or knowingly putting the United States on the wrong track. 

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said his boss would take 'great exception' to being accused of misdirecting the American people during an interview on Fox News Sunday, in the White House's first response to being called out by Bezos late the night before.

Amazon's founder took issue with a message to companies that set sky-high gas prices posted by Biden's official White House handle warning of 'a time of war and global peril' and demanding, 'Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do now.' 

'Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this,' the billionaire shot back in a retweet.

'It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics'

But Kirby said 'neither' was the case when asked about the complaint on television the next morning.

'The American people are facing pain at the pump, clearly, now we're at what - $5 per gallon? And the president is working very, very hard across many fronts to try and bring that price down,' the spokesman continued. 

He highlighted Biden's initiatives toward lowering gas prices in recent months, all of which had done little to abate the surge that only subsided within the last three weeks.

Working with G7 leaders toward a price cap on Russian oil, releasing record numbers of oil the US's Strategic Petroleum Reserve and calling on Congress to pass a three-month summer gas tax holiday are the measures Kirby listed.

'If everybody cooperates on this, we can bring the price down at least by about a dollar a gallon,' he claimed. 

Kirby said Biden 'knows the impact high gas prices have on the American household.'

Asked specifically about Bezos' 'misdirection' accusation, Kirby said 'anybody who knows President Biden knows he’s plainspoken.'

'He tells you exactly what he’s thinking and in terms that everybody can understand,' Kirby said. 'So I think we obviously take great exception at the idea that this is somehow misdirection.' 

'The president is speaking honestly with the American people about what he's trying to do to bring the prices down but he was honest even before the invasion.'

Biden's tweet came amid the July 4th holiday weekend where Americans are paying an average of $4.81 for gas as of Sunday. 

The president's statement was also mocked by Chinese state media reporter Chen Weihua.

The communist mouthpiece sent a sarcastic tweet highlighting how Biden was seeking to undermine the principles of supply and demand which dictate prices in a free-market economy like that of the United States. 

Weihua tweeted: 'Now US President finally realized that capitalism is all about exploitation. He didn't believe this before.'

The reporter tweeted something similar to Biden in 2021 when he responded to the president's tweet that read: 'Let me be clear: capitalism without competition isn't capitalism. It's exploitation.' 

Weihua wrote then: 'Capitalism is all about exploitation. Period.' 

Another of those who responded was Texas Senator Ted Cruz who tweeted:'My message to the guy running your teleprompter. It's YOUR fault. Reverse the dozens of executive orders, regulations & agency actions targeting American energy, and gas prices will fall... FAST. #Bidenflation.'

The president made a similar plea to oil giants in a June 22 speech that read in part: 'These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product.' 

Biden begging for companies to reduce prices comes shortly after his

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