CNBC host presses Jeffries on gas prices: ‘You don’t take any responsibility?’

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was pressed in a Wednesday interview on CNBC whether Democrats should take any blame for the rising cost of living in America, following a stunning report from the Labor Department on consumer prices released Wednesday morning.

“In this country, we’re still down front from peak production. You don’t you think there’s anything that you can do in Congress or to convince a Biden administration, you don’t think there’s any regulations that need to be eased? You don’t think there’s any offshore activity?” CNBC host Joe Kernen asked Jeffries on Wednesday.

“You don’t take any responsibility? It’s just all a ‘Putin price hike’?” Kernen continued.

“Part of the challenge domestically in terms of production is that the oil and gas companies have refused to actually act on the permits to drill that they currently,” Jeffries began to respond.

Kernen interrupted the congressman, saying blaming the oil companies for a lack of drilling is “a red herring.”

“So there’s leases. There’s, you know, there’s also just the overall pressure from ESG and the green lobby about whether an oil company is going to make plans five or 10 years down the road when, you know, a large part of the population wants to put them out of business completely,” the host said.

Earlier in the year, President Biden and some congressional Democrats argued that corporations played a part in inflation, alleging that their pursuit of profits lead to an increase in prices.

The president has also called on oil companies to produce more supply.

“It’s not clear to me that the oil and gas companies really care that much about the so-called green lobby,” Jeffries responded. “They have made clear in their earnings calls and in their representations to shareholders that they do care about the record profits that they’ve been making on the backs of increased gas prices for the American people.”

The Biden administration is facing increased pressure to do more to lower the price of goods and services, especially gasoline during the busy summer travel season. Biden is slated to visit Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest producers of oil, later this week.

The back-and-forth on CNBC comes hours after the Labor Department released its consumer price index report on Wednesday, indicating inflation in the United States hit 9.1 percent annually in June.

The Biden administration released a statement following the report, saying that the numbers were “out-of- date.”