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Amazon Founder Slams US President's Appeal For Lower Gasoline Prices.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos criticized President Joe Biden on Sunday for calling on oil companies to lower gasoline prices, prompting the White House to defend him.
"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," Biden tweeted Saturday.
"Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you're paying for the product. And do it now," Biden added.
Bezos said Biden's remarks amounted to "either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics."
"Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this," the US billionaire tweeted Saturday.
Biden's approval rating is slipping ahead of November's legislative elections due to rising gasoline prices, a symbol of broader price increases in the US.
According to Biden, oil companies care only about profits and not the well-being of consumers.
US oil giants say they have increased production to lower prices, but global market dynamics beyond their control determine these.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Sunday that oil prices had dropped about $15 a barrel over the past month.
Gasoline prices have been above $5 a gallon since early June, unprecedented in the car-crazy nation. Prices have fallen slightly but remain far from the $3 a gallon level of a year ago.
John Kirby, a White House spokesman on national security issues, also defended the president Sunday in an appearance on Fox News.
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