Biden Refuses To Answer Why He Waited To Issue New Russian Sanctions That Will Increase Gas Prices

President Joe Biden refused to answer on Friday why he waited until the final days of his administration — after he and Vice President Kamala Harris both failed to defeat President-elect Donald Trump during last year’s election — to enact new sanctions against Russia that he himself acknowledged will raise the price of gasoline.

CNN reported that the new sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry were some of the “harshest sanctions to date meant to cut off funding for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.”

A reporter asked Biden at a press conference if he was concerned about prices going up and why he waited until today to impose the sanctions and not years ago.

“The sanctions are imposed today because they will have profound effect on the growth of the Russian economy and make it more difficult for Putin to conduct his wars,” Biden said in avoiding answering why he waited to issue the sanctions until just a few days before Trump takes office.

Biden claimed that the sanctions would only cause gas prices to go up by three to four cents per gallon.

The sanctions targeted Russia’s largest oil companies and hundreds of oil-carrying vessels, including those that are covertly carrying oil to avoid sanctions.

The administration said that the sanctions will cost Russia “upwards of billions of dollars per month.”

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The report said that oil prices “climbed sharply” once rumors surfaced that the sanctions were coming.

Reuters’s @JeffMason1: “Mr. President, you talked about gas prices coming down. You made today’s decision about sanctions against Russia. Are you concerned that that decision will perhaps lead to gas prices going up? And can you explain why those sanctions were imposed today and… pic.twitter.com/cN1vGTseyE

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 10, 2025