President Joe Biden, while speaking at a support rally for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), said, “There is no more drilling, I haven’t formed any new drilling.”
The statement was a response to someone in the crowd who was speaking to him about offshore oil drilling. The person was, according to the Right Scoop, holding up a sign that read “5 more years of drilling is a lose-lose!”
Biden’s comments about there being “no more drilling” appeared unscripted as he wrapped up his speech in support of Hochul, who recently defeated GOP challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin.
Biden looked visibly annoyed and somewhat shaken as he replied to the attendee. The person could be heard yelling about offshore leases and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Antarctica.
Rather than ignoring the cries of the person who would have been taken away by security, Biden instead responded and said, “That was before I was president. We’re trying to work on that to get that done. Thank you.”
According to reports, Biden motioned for the person to write down her name and then spoke with her after the event.
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Gas prices averaged $2.37 when Biden took office, peaked at more than $5.00 in June of this year, and have come back “down” to $3.80 with projections that those prices could rise in the coming months.
The White House, after some pushback from reporters, did walk back the President’s statements. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden’s comments, “have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended; he regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense.”
She added, “The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: as it has been from the earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once against in the midst of an energy transition.”
Looking confused and irritable, Biden’s words did not seem to be a mistake, it sounded like he meant exactly what he said in admitting that his administration is not allowing any new drilling as gas prices spiral out of control.
