At a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to defend the Democrats’ proposed legislation to lower oil prices… and she made some downright odd remarks.
Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram shot back at Pelosi and asked, “Do you think that the public is blaming Democrats? Or will continue to blame Democrats?”
Pelosi responded, “No, I don’t think the public is blaming Democrats. I think they’re blaming the oil companies. They will blame all of us if we don’t do something about the fossil fuel industry.”
In point of fact, Emerson College polled 1,023 registered voters about inflation. 39 percent blamed the Biden administration. Meanwhile, 21 percent blamed Russia, 18 percent blamed the oil companies and another 18 percent blamed either the pandemic or the supply chains. A final 5 percent remained unsure.
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Pergram followed up with Pelosi. He asked, “But they won’t take that out on your side during the midterms? If – even if you pass this bill and prices don’t get back to normal, the perception is –”
Pelosi interrupted:
Why would we say that?
I don’t think what you’re saying is making very much sense, frankly. I mean, in all fairness, we’re friends. Candor is part of our friendship.
The Republicans are standing in the way. The Republicans are standing in the – if, if – let’s hope they don’t – if the Republicans stand in the way of us freeing, freeing the consumer of the stranglehold of Big Oil, you think they’re going to blame that on the Democrats? You think that? You think that? Okay.
Yikes.
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Pelosi also appeared to confuse Iraq with Ukraine.
“Putin has something to do with oil,” she said, according to the transcript on her website. “Iraq has some – excuse me, Ukraine has something to do with supply and therefore cost.”
The Republican National Committee obtained a video of Pelosi’s bizarre interaction with Fox. It went viral on YouTube.
Take a look —
The Democrats in Congress have yet to formally introduce the legislation. However, the Associated Press obtained a draft description yesterday.
The proposed bill would double the maximum penalty for manipulating wholesale oil markets to up to $2 million a day for each violation, the AP reported.
“There is an ongoing challenge to us that the American people understand very clearly. And that is that Big Oil has profiteered in this, has exploited the marketplace,” Pelosi said. “This time of war, and any time, there’s no excuse for Big Oil companies to protect – to profiteer, to price gouge or exploit families.
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“The price of gas and the price of oil have an impact on the price of many other things, including the price of food. So lowering costs at the pump, lowering costs at the kitchen table. That’s what Democrats are about.”
The oil industry has dismissed the legislation as a political stunt. Anne Bradbury, CEO of the American Exploration and Production Council, warned against “using the power of the FTC to undertake political investigations of American energy companies.”
Pelosi also fielded questions about the timeline to pass the legislation.
“The Senate is ready – is very much, pretty much done,” she said, according to the transcript. “Ours has a little more to be done in the course of the next week [in the House]. We have a committee work week next week, and we would hope to have all this done pretty soon.”
The Horn editorial team