The National Security Council's John Kirby on Sunday defended President Joe Biden's weekend tweet urging gas companies to lower their prices.
"I think anybody that knows President Biden knows he's plain-spoken and he tells exactly what he's thinking in terms that everybody can understand," Kirby said on "Fox News Sunday." Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, talked to Mike Emanuel in a far-ranging interview.
On Saturday, Biden tweeted: "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. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now."
Emanuel displayed a response from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos suggesting Biden remarks' were "either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics." Kirby rejected that criticism.
"The American people are facing pain at the pump, clearly now, we are at $5 a gallon. The president is working very, very hard across many fronts, Mike, to try to bring that price down," Kirby said, citing the president's recent efforts at the G-7 summit and the release of oil from the nation's strategic oil reserve.
"If everybody cooperates on this, we can bring the price down at least by about a dollar a gallon," Kirby said, "so he's working very, very hard to do this because he knows the impact that high gas prices have on the American household."