Washington Post national correspondent Philip Bump wrote Thursday that the state of the country has “rarely been worse” than it is under President Biden’s leadership, and scolded the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for what he called a “shoddy” attempt at defending the administration.
“No one would argue that things are going perfectly for President Biden,” Bump wrote in a column Thursday. “Many, in fact, would point out that, at least politically, things have rarely been worse…so it’s safe to say that having his allies gin up defenses as shoddy as this won’t really help much.”
Bump referred to a wildly misleading chart posted on Twitter by the DCCC that praised Biden for lowering gas prices in an effort to quell the widespread frustration over skyrocketing prices at the pump under his presidency.
“Thanks, @JoeBiden,” the DCCC’s official account posted along with a graph that had no start date showing gas prices going down by two cents from November 22 to November 29.
Biden speaks at the COP26 climate summit.
Critics immediately pounced on the graphic, with several Twitter users speculating whether it was satire.
Bump called it possibly “the worst defense of the Biden administration yet,” pointing out that “Since Biden took office, the price of gas has risen more than a dollar on this same measure.”
“You’re not helping, DCCC,” he said.
“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,” he wrote.
Bump acknowledged that it is possible the country will see a peak in the price of a gallon of gas.
FILE PHOTO: Gas prices grow along with inflation as this sign at a gas station shows in San Diego, California, U.S. November, 9, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo/File Photo
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He continued, “If so, that would certainly be good news and might even help turn Biden’s approval ratings around. But 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. Or, at least,” he cautioned, “they might not want to try to prove their dubious point with a graph that makes obvious how modest the decrease has been.”