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![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (2) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (2)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/CACHE/images/politifact/mugs/AP_19138732015030/6498825a244d1bc9382c3c1786d870fd.jpg)
Joe Biden
stated on October 27, 2022 in a speech in Syracuse, N.Y.:
The price of gas is “down from over $5 when I took office.”
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (4) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (4)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/politifact/rulings/meter-false.jpg)
- Gas Prices
- Joe Biden
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (6) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (6)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/CACHE/images/politifact/photos/Biden_in_Syracuse/6f27c941a988e78ba14b129ddef4c2de.jpeg)
President Joe Biden speaks at Onondaga Community College on Oct. 27, 2022, in Syracuse, N.Y. (AP)
By Louis JacobsonOctober 28, 2022
If Your Time is short
• When Biden was inaugurated in January 2021, the nationwide average price of gasoline was about $2.46 per gallon. Gasoline prices did exceed $5, but that peak came more than a year later in June 2022.
See the sources for this fact-check
High gasoline prices have been a political challenge for President Joe Biden and Democrats in this midterm election year. During an Oct. 27 visit to Syracuse, New York, Biden flubbed a statistic on gas prices, prompting a swarm of criticism among political commentators and on social media.
"Today, the most common price of gas in America is $3.39, down from over $5 when I took office," Biden said in remarks about microchip manufacturing in Syracuse.
Biden was in the ballpark about the most common gas price when he was making his remarks. But the national average gas price hit $5 under Biden this past summer, and prices were not at that level when Biden was inaugurated in January 2021.
Gas prices rose during Biden’s presidency, mainly because of increased demand as the economy recovered from disruptions wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine also caused havoc in the oil markets. Russia is a major world oil producer and many Western nations tried to wean themselves from Russian oil in protest of the war.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the monthly peak for gasoline prices in the U.S. came in June. That’s when the average nationwide price hit $5.03, crossing the $5 level for the first time in history. In the second week of that month, the weekly price peaked at $5.11. (These prices are not adjusted for inflation.)
Since then, prices have fallen, something Biden has been eager to tout. The most recent weekly price for October is $3.89, representing a decline of about $1.22, or 23%, in about four months.
Featured Fact-check
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (9) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (9)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/CACHE/images/politifact/mugs/JohnnyIsakson/3bc32220009715fd72081e857b112462.jpg)
Johnny Isakson
stated on March 11, 2011 in a Twitter post
"Since President Obama took office, gas prices have gone up 67 percent."
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (11) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (11)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/politifact/rulings/meter-half-true.jpg)
Even after this decline, gas prices remain well above where they were when Biden took office. The week he was inaugurated, the average price stood at $2.46, because ofthe impact the pandemic was having on the economy at a time when vaccines were just being rolled out. So gas is about 58% more expensive now than it was in January 2021, even after the past four months of declining prices.
The White House pointed PolitiFact to other recent examples of Biden getting the rise and fall of gas prices right.
On Oct. 26, for instance, Biden said during a virtual fundraiser that gas is "going to be down … $1.35 since this summer." And at another point in the same Syracuse speech, he said, "We’re down $1.25 since the peak this summer."
Our ruling
Biden said the price of gas is "down from over $5 when I took office."
The national average gasoline price did exceed $5, but that peak came this past June, and prices were not at that level when Biden was inaugurated in January 2021. When he was inaugurated, the price was about $2.46.
We rate the statement False.
RELATED:Gasoline prices: Where they stand now, and why
Read About Our Process
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
Our Sources
Joe Biden, "Remarks by President Biden on Micron’s plan to invest in chips manufacturing," Oct. 27, 2022
Joe Biden, "Remarks by President Biden at a virtual fundraiser with Congressman Cartwright," Oct. 26, 2022
U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Weekly U.S. all grades all formulations retail gasoline prices," accessed Oct. 28, 2022
Patrick de Haan, tweet, Oct. 27, 2022
CNN, "Biden falsely claims the most common gas price was over $5 when he took office," Oct. 28, 2022
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Louis Jacobson
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Joe Biden
stated on May 14, 2024 in an interview with Yahoo Finance:
Inflation “was 9% when I came to office.”
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Joe Biden
stated on May 12, 2024 in a fundraising event in Seattle:
"China's in a situation where they have more retired than working."
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Kamala Harris
stated on May 1, 2024 in a speech:
In his Time magazine interview, Donald Trump “said states have the right to monitor pregnant women to enforce these bans, and states have the right to punish pregnant women for seeking out abortion care.”
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Nancy Pelosi
stated on April 29, 2024 in an interview with MSNBC:
Former President Donald Trump “has the worst record of job loss of any president.”
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (27) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (27)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-half-true.jpg)
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Joe Biden
stated on April 26, 2024 in an interview with Howard Stern:
Says he “got arrested” while protesting in favor of desegregation.
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Mike Johnson
stated on April 24, 2024 in an interview with CNN:
Said Columbia University has told students, “Well, if you’re Jewish, maybe you do want to stay home.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on March 31, 2024 in a post on X:
"The much-trumpeted job growth in the last year was ENTIRELY part-time jobs."
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (39) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (39)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-half-true.jpg)
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on April 21, 2024 in a post on X:
“Congress prohibits the NIH from researching the cause of mass shootings.”
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (43) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (43)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-false.jpg)
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Marco Rubio
stated on April 11, 2024 in an interview with Fox News:
“It's very misleading when (President Biden) says (inflation) used to be at 9%. This is compounding. It’s not like it went down from 9% to 3%. This is building month after month. The better way to think about it is that it’s 18%, 19% over the last three years."
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (47) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (47)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-half-true.jpg)
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Donald Trump
stated on April 8, 2024 in a video posted on Truth Social:
"All legal scholars, both sides, wanted, and in fact demanded” that Roe v. Wade be overturned.
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (51) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (51)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-false.jpg)
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Joe Biden
stated on April 8, 2024 in a Facebook post:
“Support for Roe is higher today in America than it has ever been."
![Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (55) Biden’s false talking point on when gas hit $5 a gallon (55)](https://i0.wp.com/static.politifact.com/img/meter-mostly-true.jpg)
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Donald Trump
stated on April 8, 2024 in a video posted on Truth Social:
Democrats support abortion measures that result in the “execution” of babies “after birth.”
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Nancy Mace
stated on March 30, 2024 in a post on X:
“Since Joe Biden took office, crime has skyrocketed across our country.”
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Donna Brazile
stated on March 24, 2024 in remarks on ABC's "This Week":
The current Congress is “the least productive in our lifetime.”
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X posts
stated on March 22, 2024 in an X post:
A March 7 U.S. security alert … means the U.S. was “behind this gruesome terror attack on Russian civilians.”
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Gas prices hit $5 a gallon more than a year after Joe Biden took office, not when he was inaugurated
X posts
stated on May 10, 2024 in an X post:
Sen. Katie Britt introduced a bill “to create a national registry of pregnant women.”
X posts
stated on May 15, 2024 in an X post:
Video shows Slovakia Prime Minister Fico speaking against the World Health Organization the week before he was the target of an assassination attempt.
Facebook posts
stated on May 14, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook:
“Lo vuelve hacer… se escapa” Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera “El Chapo”.
Facebook posts
stated on May 11, 2024 in a video:
“They are hiding the fact that Barbara O’Neill’s cousin was sentenced to life in prison for revealing these gatekept health secrets.”
Tucker Carlson
stated on May 9, 2024 in an Instagram post:
Lyme disease became endemic because of U.S. government bioweapons labs.
Viral image
stated on May 15, 2024 in an X post:
CNBC reported that "Apple device update set to remove clown emoji" because it has become a far-right symbol.
Instagram posts
stated on May 9, 2024 in an Instagram post:
“The House of Representatives in the U.S. just passed … the Antisemitism Act that proposes to eliminate part of the Bible.”
Facebook posts
stated on May 4, 2024 in a post on Facebook:
“Voter fraud investigations are being banned by Michigan lawmakers!”
Viral image
stated on May 6, 2024 in a Facebook post:
Video shows CNN report about actor Robert Downey Jr.’s app “to earn money.”
Viral image
stated on May 8, 2024 in a Threads post:
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said, “At least I have the guts to look in the eyes of the animal I’m killing!”
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