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CNBC editor tears into Biden over new sky-high inflation numbers: 'Maybe things would have turned out a bit different'
Image source: Twitter @SquawkCNBC screenshot

CNBC editor tears into Biden over new sky-high inflation numbers: 'Maybe things would have turned out a bit different'

CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli reacted in live time Friday as abysmal new inflation numbers dropped, blasting the Biden administration for its hostile energy policies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday the consumer price index jumped 1% from April, climbing to a year-over-year spike of 8.6%, the highest rate in more than 40 years.

What did Santelli say?

Santelli was speaking live on "Squawk Box" when the CPI data for May was published. After reading off the alarming numbers, Santelli unloaded on President Joe Biden.

"I will say that out of all of the above, energy, energy, energy," Santelli began.

"You know, there are so many comments here about, 'Oh, the administration can only do so much,'" he continued. "You know what? We all said that about the Fed. And then there's this thing called 'forward guidance.' So the Fed gets the market to do things long before it takes action by telling [people] what's in their head what lies down the road."

Inversely, Santelli said the "forward guidance" from Biden has been to demonize the oil and gas industry.

“What was the forward guidance with this administration on energy? We know the answer," he said. "Maybe they can’t get things to happen faster, but by giving positive forward guidance, by not closing pipelines, by not talking pre-election about how much they don’t like fossil fuel, maybe things would have turned out a bit different."

What is Biden saying?

The president addressed the ongoing inflation problem Friday by once again turning to his trite scapegoats: Russian President Vladimir Putin and the oil industry.

"Putin’s Price Hike hit hard in May here and around the world: high gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine," Biden said in a statement.

The reality, however, is that gas prices have more than doubled since Biden took office last year. The average price of gas was $2.39 per gallon on Jan. 20, 2021. Today, the average price hit $4.99 per gallon, an all-time record.

Meanwhile, Biden also said, "[I]t is also important that the oil and gas and refining industries in this country not use the challenge created by the war in Ukraine as a reason to make things worse for families with excessive profit taking or price hikes."

But that is not true. While the Biden administration has repeatedly tried to blame oil companies for price gouging, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas made it clear that oil companies are not responsible for gas prices.

"Since only 1 percent of service stations in the U.S. are owned by companies that also produce oil, U.S. oil producers are in no position to control retail gasoline prices," the economists wrote last month.

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