MSNBC guest tells Americans to 'calm down and back off' about high gas prices

Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly identified the MSNBC guest as Errin Haines. We regret the error.

An MSNBC guest demanded that many Americans stop complaining about high gas prices because many others are doing far worse economically.

Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary made the comments talking about a proposed gas tax holiday with Chris Jansing on her MSNBC show Wednesday.

"You know, I'm just gonna say this and if I get banged for it, I don't care," said Singletary.

"There is a great deal of Americans where it is uncomfortable that they're spending more, but they are not gonna go under. You've got to stop complaining when there's so many people who literally, the inflation rate means they may only have two meals instead of three," Singletary continued.

"There are Americans who did extremely well in last two years in the market. You still have your job. And yeah, it's costing you more for gas, but guess what, you still gonna take that holiday, that Fourth of July vacation, you could till gonna eat out," Singletary added.

"So I'm gonna need you to calm down and back off," she said.

"Because it feeds into this fear, and this fear feeds into people making decisions that creates the very thing that they are fearful of!" she concluded.

President Joe Biden was to call for a gas tax holiday in order to provide some relief to Americans at the pump, but economists and others criticized the relatively infinitesimal effect of the policy.

“A federal gas tax suspension alone won’t fix the problem we face, but it will provide families a little breathing room as we continue working to bring down prices for the long haul,” said a senior administration official about the proposal.

Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia heavily criticized the plan, signaling that it would not have enough support in the U.S. Senate to defeat Republican opposition.

On Tuesday, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods predicted that the global gas market would continue to stay "tight" and result in high gasoline prices for years.

"How that manifests itself in price will obviously be a big function of demand, which is difficult to predict," he added.

Here's the video of Singletary's comments on MSNBC: