House Democrats received criticism after posting a graph thanking President Joe Biden for a two-cent decrease in gas prices.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) tweeted a graph showing gas prices dropped from $3.40 to $3.38 over the period of seven days.
Thanks, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/0iHwTLv7fB
— DCCC (@dccc) December 2, 2021
Several took to the social media platform to mock the DCCC.
Democrats think Americans are stupid. As if, after paying through the nose this year, you all of a sudden are supposed to believe gas prices are lower under Joe Biden because they put out a stupid chart. Don’t insult Americans @dccc. pic.twitter.com/xZiilYeb86
— Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) December 3, 2021
I absolutely cannot get over the @dccc thinking it was a good idea to tweet that gas prices have dropped TWO CENTS and thanking Joe Biden for it.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) December 2, 2021
Because families experience inflation are going to be grateful that gas prices have dropped two cents after rising $1 this year. https://t.co/bvTHbLXJTc
Gas prices fall .02 from last week, and the DCCC says, “you’re welcome America…keep the change.”
— Nick Freitas (@NickForVA) December 2, 2021
Did Marie Antoinette advise on this tweet? https://t.co/zrsdyAQk02
About two years ago I reached out to the DCCC, offering to help improve their social media strategy. I was brushed off, told explicitly that "our people know what they're doing." https://t.co/PaATi6MPMj
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) December 2, 2021
Can I get the play-by-play on who on your staff thought this was a good idea? The graphics guy who made it? The comms guy who thinks two cents is something to high-five over? Whoever approved and then tweeted it? Truly amazing stuff.
— Andrew Wagner (@andrewwagner) December 2, 2021
Some graphic designer spent like an hour doing this, and no one in charge at the DCCC said, "this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen"? https://t.co/24iX5acaFQ
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) December 2, 2021
The Washington Post also responded to the tweet in an article titled, “This might be the worst defense of the Biden administration yet.”
The outlet’s Philip Bump wrote, “Now, though, the DCCC wants to not only give Biden credit for a decline in the price of gas, they want to give him credit for a tiny decline in the price of gas. A decline that isn’t even the largest decline we’ve seen this year; over a similar period in August, the price of gas dropped more than 1 percent, more than three cents.”
Included in the article is a graph showing “how modest the recent downturn in prices has been.”
Props to @washingtonpost, this is a pretty good graph to represent how terrible the @DCCC graph is: pic.twitter.com/jfp9Xn5hBP
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) December 2, 2021
Bump suggested the DCCC “might be advised to wait until that turnaround is a little more substantial than it currently is before boasting about how effective the president has been.”
He concluded, “Or, at least, they might not want to try to prove their dubious point with a graph that makes obvious how modest the decrease has been.”
A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee told Fox Business, “Sean Patrick Maloney’s DCCC is one of the most incompetent organizations Washington has ever seen,” adding, “It’s no wonder vulnerable Democrats keep retiring.”
Last month, the president announced he would be using the Department of Energy to help lower gas prices, as IJR reported.
“The Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply,” Biden said.
