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Amazon founder slams Biden over misdirected inflation plea

Jeff Bezos and Joe Biden

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says Joe Biden is either misleading the public or lacks a basic understanding of the economy after the US president called on companies running gas stations to lower the price of gas.

"Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics,” Bezos said in a tweet on Sunday.

Biden made a direct appeal to gas stations in a tweet on Saturday and encouraged them to simply charge less for gasoline, as gas prices reached an all-time high.

"My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product," Biden said on Saturday. "And do it now."

Bezos said the tweet was very telling to him and may reveal how little Biden knows about the market.

The American business magnate and the White House have formerly sparred over the economy, with the administration criticizing Bezos for opposing Biden's planned reforms imposing higher taxes on wealthy US citizens. 

Earlier this year, Bezos lashed out at the Biden administration for injecting “more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy."

Bezos was not the only one to criticize Biden for his remarks. CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy Douglas Carswell also described them as "Bizarre, tragic, pathetic."

"A US President lashing out at gas hoarders," he wrote.

Biden continues to try and pin the blame on anything for record-high gas prices, which has created serious headwinds for his Democratic party ahead of the midterms.

Bezos emerged as an unlikely critic of the Biden administration as the president continues to try and pin the blame for record-high gas prices on anything ahead of the midterm election.

Kirby defends Biden's tweet

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, on Sunday pushed back on Bezos’s tweet the prior day bashing Biden for calling on “companies running gas stations” to lower their prices.

During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with guest host Mike Emanuel, Kirby argued that “it’s neither.”

“Anybody that knows President Biden knows he’s plain-spoken and he tells exactly what he’s thinking in terms that everybody can understand,” Kirby said. “So, I think, we obviously take great exception of the idea that this is somehow misdirection.”

Over the past year, he has blamed his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, Russia and the ongoing war with Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic as well as oil production companies.

The Democratic president placed an embargo on Russian oil earlier this year, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military campaign against Ukraine on February 24.

In addition to the oil embargo, Washington and its Western allies imposed unprecedented waves of sanctions on Moscow.

The move has so far sent the prices of grain, cooking oil, fertilizers and energy skyrocketing.


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